What We WISH We Knew Before Moving to Da Nang in 2025

What We WISH We Knew Before Moving to Da Nang in 2025

So, we’re leaving Da Nang. It’s just not a very good 
environment to be waking up to and just like constantly surrounded by noise. Rain. Yeah. All day, flash flooding. We want to share with you all the things 
we’ve learned about living in Daang in the last 2 months so you can make your own informed 
decision whether this place is for you or not. All right, we’re packing. We’re 
leaving Da Nang. As we said before, um we came to Da Nang thinking it’s going to be a 
nice digital nomad hub for us and we can stay here for a few months just to chill out and from all 
the hectic traveling we’ve been having in Europe. So, I was really really looking forward to coming 
here and just relaxing and getting our schedules back. But as it turns out, it hasn’t been so 
ideal for us and we’ve actually caught it early. We’re leaving Da Nang earlier than expected. 
Living here and traveling here is two different stories. Last year, we were here for I think 
it was about a week and we had a wonderful time. We stayed in a slightly different area, 
but it was still a busy tourist area. Yeah. and we had a really good time and we thought 
you know next time we should come back here give this place a good go cuz we heard a 
lot of great things about it and there are lots of expats around but living here for the 
last 2 months it’s definitely not the same. So, we want to share with you all the things 
we’ve learned about living in Da Nang in the last 2 months so you can make your own 
informed decision whether this place is for you or not and also how to have a 
good time if you do decide to come to Da Nang cuz it does have a lot to offer. Um, 
but I think going through our experience, we would do a few things very differently. 
So, let’s chat about that. Yeah. So the first thing we’ve encountered was 
communication issue. Obviously a lot of locals don’t speak English well which is totally 
fine. You could get by using translation apps, body language. We’ve done it in many 
many countries. That’s not the problem. I guess it’s more about the communication 
style. And also in the Vietnamese culture, I believe in a lot of Asian culture as well. 
We’re sort of brought up thinking saying yes is a polite way. And um also it’s always good 
to say yes to people being people pleasers. So a lot of the people here, the locals you speak 
to, they actually don’t really understand what you want and what you’re saying, but they will nod and 
smile and say yes. And if you’re not used to it, you just think, “Okay, yeah, they got 
it.” But um they don’t. Half of the time, they don’t know what’s going on, and they 
just nod and smile, and then you end up being frustrated because something’s not 
done to your expectations. So in that way, you do need to manage expectations in terms of how 
they communicate and just the cultural difference. Always, always triple confirm something. If they 
nod and smile, repeat what you want and just make sure they understand. And if you’re dealing 
with something that is transactional, it’s really important to have everything in writing either 
through like your message and take a screenshot of it so you don’t lose that important information 
or contract, if you’re renting an apartment or just having it in writing makes it super clear 
for everybody. So if there’s any discrepancy and argument, you can pull that up and you know 
kind of argue your case and prove your point. I think we’re very fortunate here because you 
speak the language. Yeah. Even for me, I can speak the language. It helps a lot. But sometimes 
I still have to double-check or triple-check with them in Vietnamese just to make sure everything 
on the same page. Delivery from Lazada. All right. Got that delivery. All right. This is Cathleen’s 
medicine. This is the medicine. Everything, I mean like 
everything can be delivered. we got our groceries things that we order online 
from Lazada medicine and I mean a lot more stuff uh delivered to us and it’s very simple actually. 
That is another thing that very good as well. You can pay cash on delivery. So you don’t 
need to link your card to any app at all. You actually can hear the construction going on 
around here. So much noise. So, I’m just going to go up back to the delivery. Um, however, it will 
be easier if you can speak the language because, I can speak Vietnamese, so it’s easy for me to 
deal with the vendors and the delivery drivers. All right. So, this is Vietnam as well. You don’t 
see a lot of people from 11:30 to 3:00 p.m. here out in the outdoors because it’s quite hot. So, 
a lot of people tend to either close their shop, have a rest, have a midday nap. Um, the 
shop behind us just kind of closing up a little bit as well just to chill it. I 
mean, it’s pretty crazy to stand outside during those times cuz it gets quite 
hot and the street is pretty quiet. You only you don’t really see a lot of 
locals. You’ll see a lot of tourists like us right now. We’re not 
touring. We’re here to film. We’re sacrificing ourselves. Quick, 
it’s too hot. All right, let’s go. The monsoon season is here. It’s normally 
around August to December and it’s getting worse and worse around September. September, 
October. October. Yeah. Uh so if you’re here during the monsoon season, it’s going to be 
like this the whole day. So rain, whole day, flash flooding, quite heavy rain. So 
you just want to do indoor activity, you won’t be able to go to the 
beach, anything like that. No. Yeah. So just make sure uh if you like the sun, 
the beach, don’t come around this time. Yeah. These ones are really good. But 
I’m a size 8 to 10 in Australia. in here. I’m extra extra large 7 
XL. So these pants is one size. I need to try if it fits cuz also in 
Asia some of the material shrinks. So I pay six two pairs of pants and one short was 650K. She gave it to me 
for 630K. How much is 630K? $36 for this. Pretty good. I bought a pair 
of pants here before. This one, it’s very, very good, but they don’t have another color. So, so obviously things here are very cheap, but you can definitely overindulge. Like, I 
was looking at the pants. I was like, “Oh, should I get another pair?” I was like, “I 
don’t need it.” Even though it was like $10, but um yeah, just it’s tempting, but you 
just get what you need, right? Another construction just popped up out of nowhere. We don’t know where it’s coming from. All right. So, this is the street that we are 
staying and there’s a construction, another one that just started that I’ve noticed today. So, 
Vietnam is very, it’s always under construction. This when we first got here, this 
was the first one. This one here. This one right here. And because it’s 
quite far away from our apartment, we weren’t really bothered by it. 
However, since we’ve been here, the one two doors down from us, you can see 
that pile of dirt come cuz you can hear it. This is quiet, believe it or not. This started to happen and the grinding and 
the concrete drilling cuz we are literally two doors down. It was like quite unbearable 
in the morning. The worst one, however, it’s not this. It’s actually 
the one right next door to us. They’ve decided to do a full-blown remodel 
of their home. I don’t know if you can see, but all the windows and doors has been taken 
out and the inside’s actually empty. So, I think they just keeping 
the shell and renovating, like renovating everything else. And 
that wall here, that’s our bedroom wall. That’s where we are literally right there. 
So like 7:30 in the morning, the banging, the drooling, it’s like straight to our 
ears. It’s so noisy. It’s just not a very good environment to be waking up to and 
just like constantly surrounded by noise. So definitely a sensory overload. Um it’s 
it’s noisy. Vietnam is noisy. Yeah. Yeah. That’s all we get. How many times is like 
third or fourth time that we ran our water? So many times we lost count. Yeah. Something’s 
wrong with the water pump apparently. Right. The building manager is coming. Things 
in Vietnam don’t last very long. Quality is definitely questionable. Anyway, we shall see. So the next thing would be to manage 
your expectations while in Da Nang. You’re in a different country. 
Things work differently here. So, don’t apply the rules back home here. 
Everything is completely different, so you’re just going to have to get used 
to it. You do get what you pay for here. Things are incredibly cheap, but don’t expect 
exceptional quality. You can’t be paying bottom prices and expecting everything to be a Western 
standard. It just does not work like that. The quality of things are very, very different. 
So, for example, in our apartment, things have randomly broken down that it shouldn’t have. 
Um, in our opinion, we’ve had a random tile dropped from our kitchen bench for no reason, 
just because of lack of craftsmanship. We found out that it was actually just sticky 
taped on. So things like that, you know, they cut corners and all of things and that’s 
how they produce something really cheap, right? So if you are enjoying that 
more affordable lifestyle, there’s definitely a downside to 
it. So you cannot have everything. The other thing is that things happen very 
fast or really slow here. For example, like if you buying thing you need delivery, right? I bought medicine for Kathleen. I 
just order on the phone and then half an hour later the medicine’s there at the front 
of the house. And then when we had our issues with water and I tried to contact the manager 
and it took them like 3 days trying to fix it. So yeah. Our hot water? Our hot water. Oh yeah. So I thought you were 
talking about the water not being available which happened about I want to say like seven 
times. Yeah. We had no water running water in our apartment about like seven times for no 
random reason. We don’t know why. I mean it is what it is. So um you just just have 
to work around it. Work around it. Yeah. But just be mindful of it cuz you can get very 
upset over these situations cuz you know back at home not having water and hot water 
in particular is considered an emergency, right? Emergency house repair. But here 
it’s just like it will come back eventually. Yeah. Yeah. I guess the little things, 
they make it super convenient. Like the delivery like Grab being so available, 
you can order anything and everything, but then you’ve got the bigger things that happens 
to be the other way around and it’s like super slow. Oh yeah. And in Vietnam there’s a lot less 
rules than you think. I think they call Vietnam a jungle for a reason. Because everything 
it is just kind of like wing it as you go. I think we can give you a really good 
example about the constructions that’s been happening around us. You know, I 
think that’s a really big reason why we’re leaving. When we first got here, there 
was maybe just one on top of the street was fairly far away and you really couldn’t 
hear anything when the doors are shut. But in the way coming, another one started. 
Another one started and the final one was the one next door. There’s no warnings, no 
nothing. I don’t think you were saying that they don’t really have to alert anyone to 
demolish anything. They just have to tell the council. But once they tell them, 
like it’s just like sure that’s it. Like whereas I think where we come from, we 
do expect like your neighbors being alert. You can only work a certain time. That’s what 
we thought. Sundays they don’t work. But um they definitely do. Not every 
Sunday, it’s whenever they feel like. So, we’ve just had a lot of like thumping 
construction right next door to us to the point where our building actually shake. 
Um, things like that. And I also feel like perhaps there should have been some sort of like 
maybe check on like the building and how it’s constructed and how it affects your neighbours 
cuz if that was back home, there definitely is going to be issue in terms of like structural 
integrity. How is it going to affect like is the building going to collapse? cuz you can this 
is shaking when next door um is demolishing. So I was like fearing for my life for 
a bit. I was like it’s an earthquake. So things like that it’s all fun in games when 
it’s just like oh it’s kind of loosey goosey. There aren’t a lot of rules and you can sort of 
do what you want and which is great. But when it comes to bigger things I think some rules are 
good. some just just some. Um so that’s that one. So don’t come thinking that like oh apply 
your logic to um what how things should work here cuz it definitely don’t work that way. 
Really if you want to have a good time here you will have to just learn to roll with it 
or move on like us. It’s to a point where it becomes more of a health and safety reason. 
So we are moving on because of that. Um, otherwise other things don’t really bother us. 
Like the 2 a.m. Banh Bao, that’s fine. Someone needs to make a business and it’s they’re 
passing by. It’s just part of what they do. It’s part of the culture. Um, but when it’s 
health and safety, that’s where we draw the line. So that’s it. That’s the things we 
learned while living in Da Nang in the last few months. in an upcoming city 
with lots to offer. You got great beaches, lots of restaurants around. Um, but it is a city 
of contrast. There is tranquility of the beach, of the riverside, but then you also have 
the chaos that comes with it as well. So, we are leaving to Hoi An next. We 
did stay there for a couple of months last year and we like it um because it is 
a bit more tranquil, a lot more quieter, which suits our vibes better. Daang could 
work for a lot of other digital nomads. Especially those who seeking 
a bit of everything. So, but it’s just not for us at the 
moment. So, we’re going to move on.

We came to Da Nang, Vietnam, expecting the tranquil beachside life for digital nomads: low cost of living, fast Wi-Fi, and amazing food. And while Da Nang is truly beautiful, living here for two months was a completely different experience from just visiting!

Da Nang is a city of contrasts. It’s affordable (one of the cheapest hot spots for digital nomads), has fantastic food, but it comes with unique challenges. In this video we will be sharing our honest experiences while living in Da Nang.
Here are the topics we cover that will completely change your perspective on Da Nang living:
✨Communication: How to successfully deal with locals in Vietnam when English is limited, and why you must always double-check agreements (especially with accommodation and transactions).
✨Convenience: Why delivery in Da Nang is one of the best perks (Cash on Delivery is still the norm).
✨Weather: Avoid the peak Da Nang rainy and monsoon season and understand the true risk of travelling during this time.
✨Budgeting: How the low cost of living in Da Nang can lead to overindulgence (the cheap massage and coffee can add up).
✨Culture Shock: Dealing with the unexpected reality of a developing city: loud construction noise in the morning, and everything moves at a different pace and set of rules (or lack of).

If you’re considering Da Nang as one digital nomad destinations in Southeast Asia, make sure you watch until the end to see if Da Nang is the right fit for you.

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Chapters
0:00 – We are leaving Da Nang, and Things we learnt while living in Da Nang
2:02 – Dealing with locals, communication style
3:57 – Everything can be delivered
5:15 – Vietnamese love afternoon nap
5:57 – Avoid coming during the rainy and monsoon season
6:36 – It’s easy to overindulge yourself
7:44 – Lots of construction and noise in Da Nang or Vietnam in general
10:16 – Manage your expectations

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