My favorite time of year in Da Nang as far as weather is concerned will soon be coming to a close. I relish this time of year where it is cool enough during the day to never sweat unless you are exercising and at night it is sometimes a bit chilly warranting the use of a sweatshirt and jeans. It's just lovely.
The days are mostly overcast and gloomy but I am just fine with that. If I have to use the lights in my house in the afternoon in order to not be a sweaty mess everywhere that I go, I'm for it!
Well every now and then the sun breaks though and I went up to the roof to "enjoy" it I guess. Mostly I was just trying to read a book outside of my own condo and give Nadi a chance to get some fresh air without the constant threat of being turned into a tarmac road pancake because of how people drive in this country.
I guess she doesn't look super pleased to be up here but trust me, she enjoys it. She walks from rail to rail and sniffs the air and then after walking around the pool a bit will seek out some shade because she has a coat on that she cannot remove. In a few months it will be unbearably hot up here at the pool and I hope by that time the landlord here can use some of that inflated rent that we pay to her to sort out that fucking umbrella.
You know how they say that owners and their pets end up having a lot in common with one another? Well Nadi squinting the entire time that she is up here is definitely a characteristic that I possess. I have phototropic eyes, a condition that is actually called "photophobia" but I decided to not call it that because such a name makes it sound like I am afraid of having my picture taken, which is kind of true in a way as well because I am just not photogenic at all when I know the pic is being taken. The only good photos that exist of me are the ones that I was unaware were being taken.
So we sat up here and I wore my unbelievably overpriced prescription glasses that have the auto tint on them and I read a lot of the book that I am reading right now called All the Light we cannot See or something like that and since nobody else came up to the pool the entire time that I was there it was actually a very relaxing place to be. The construction noise that is ever-present is easier to put out of your mind up here because we are pretty far away from it up here. If I tried hard enough I could actually hear the nearby ocean a bit too.
So after about 10 chapters of the book I started to feel like I had been in the sun long enough and it is good thing I pulled the plug on that when I did because a day later I realized that I had a "farmer's tan" where my shirt was outlined on my body. Good times. It's been a while since that happened to me.
Later on I felt like trying out this new Korean restaurant that opened near my house and ordered some take away because I like to eat near my dog so I can see her extremely jealous eyes as I pick apart succulent meat slowly and right in front of her face as she drools. Don't worry, she gets some of it in the end.
So here is my beef soup with rice that I ordered and good lord.
Look, I'm not captain environmentalism and I can't stand Greta Thunberg or whatever her name is... but this is just a crazy amount of plastic for one meal. I get that they are trying to keep everything separate in order to have the maximum flavor explosion available for you when you get home but this is just irresponsible.
The tray on the bottom was something I didn't even know I was going to be receiving when I ordered.
Don't get me wrong, I love free side dishes that I didn't know I was getting for the price of admission to soup-ville but do we really need to have all of the packaged in their own plastic container? Vietnam tries their best, but they have a terrible track record for plastic disposal and is one of the biggest polluters of any country on earth despite being a relatively small country. All you have to do is look at this one takeaway to understand why that might be.
I like plastic, I think it is very useful but this is just a crazy amount of the stuff for one person to have with one dish. All of the smaller plastic containers were sealed with a wrap that is made of (drumroll!) you guessed it! Plastic.
I filled up an entire bin bag with the trash from this one meal and again, I am no environmentalist but this is kind of obscene to have this much waste go into a single beef soup takeaway. I will have to keep this in mind for the future but still, I can't put myself into the head of someone that would look at all of this and not have a problem with it. Even if plastic was easily recycled and outside of bottles I don't think really any of it is recycled here, this would still be entirely too much stuff for one person to be receiving. I can't even imagine how much crap would be produced if I was ordering say, lunch for the entire office. We could probably block the entrance to the building with all the garbage.
Oh well, I guess this is why I encounter so much of this trash whenever I am walking on the beach.
Ooh, I haven't read the book but my wife has. She said it was really good. We watched the show that they made from the book on Netflix together and I thought it was excellent. I hope you enjoy the book. It is kind of crazy how much plastic they use in containers for take out. Even here in the US where they have started to cut down on that sort of thing it's crazy. Did you know in the Denver area they outlawed bags? So like you either have to pay for a bag or carry all your take out in a balancing act to your car. It's crazy.
I don't agree with banning bags. I saw a fun little short the other day of a woman walking through a grocery store and how everything in there was packaged in plastic, sometimes packed in plastic and then wrapped in plastic as well but you can't have a bag. I think we point the fingers at the wrong parties frequently. The book is great and I am happy that I avoided the Netflix movie or series because every chapter is a surprise to me. I recommend it for sure
You'll have to watch it after you finish the book to see how it compares. I thought it was pretty decent without reading the book. Yes, it is pretty silly the things they choose to focus on sometimes. In Michigan they now have recycle bins at the Meijer store where you can put your used plastic bags in them. We usually give ours to my brother in law for his store, he reuses them there. There are even people who take the plastic bags and turn them into floor mats and handbags. It's crazy. My mom was making them to send to Haiti for a while, but they found out that people were attacking women and stealing their recycled plastic bag handbags, so they stopped sending them!
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ
What a waste of a pool area and I know I would swim at least twice daily and no one seems to use this. Unfortunately there is not much else besides plastic that would be cheap enough to work. Thankfully here they have given up on the paper straws ad gone back to plastic. You will know what a dangerous impossible mission it was to suck up a milkshake through a paper straw as you will give yourself a hernia in no time.
yeah, that is true about the paper straws. People do use that pool but the water in it is quite cold right now because of the sort of winter that we are in right now. I'm just happy that the owners of the building still treat the water even though almost no one gets into it during Dec/Jan
I think it would cost more leaving it and having to get it blue in a few months time. I know I have been there and done that.
I'm curious,have you considered contacting the restaurant to express your concerns about the excessive packaging?Perhaps they'd be open to making changes.It's always worth trying to initiate a conversation about sustainability.
This fantastic travelogue with great reflection is truly unique. It is a real pleasure to spend some time walking and sweating with great love for life. All of which play a great role as other parts of wellness. Best wishes for your health.