While the focus lately has been on bowling I am still getting out there on my bicycle every couple of days in my continued search for the perfect quiet place. I haven't exactly found it because there are so many people in the Da Nang that I am convinced it simply isn't possible to get to a true quiet place unless it is the middle of the night, but I have done somewhat good as far as finding the best we can really get in a city of over a million people.
When you get about 4km from the city center, the areas there still have a bit of nature and even some agriculture. The rest of the city has been transformed into cement and metal just like all big cities. In these few remaining nature areas though, we get as close to peaceful as I think is going to happen here.
Something that is a bit concerning about the few bits of green that remain though, is that there is already groundwork being done to eliminate it. And that is what is happening here. In this little neighborhood that i was in, there isn't even a single house yet, but the roads and electric are all there and I guess they are just waiting for some people to come and buy them so they can build something there.
I encountered several of these planned communities on my latest ride and if you look closely at that last picture you an see that I accidentally caught a bird in flight as well. We rarely see birds around here ever.
I suppose it is a bit depressing to me to notice that all of these places are slowly but surely being "eaten up" by people, but If you want to put what is now getting close to one and a half million people into a rather small area, I guess that is what you have to do.
Vietnam is, and I knew this before I moved here, one of the most densely populated countries in SE Asia and probably the world as well. Nearly 100 million people in this tiny land mass and when you think about what the population of a much larger land mass is like say, Canada, Australia, or even Russia, Vietnam has a ton of people in it considering how small it is.
I guess I need to appreciate the little bit of nature that we have left here and well, it isn't really nature now is it? Rice paddies are lovely though as far as farmland is concerned. To me there is something just exceptionally peaceful about the rolling sea of green.
All of this is located a bit south of the city center and I wouldn't advise trying to walk towards it, you would need to cycle.
Perhaps my next destiation will be that spot of green that I can see from the satellite over there a bit further west.