This weekend
in Da Nang.

Da Nang counted more than 850,000 visitors over the five day National Day holiday, from 29 August to 2 September. That is up 37 percent on the same holiday last year.

Of those, more than 224,000 were international. More than 275,000 actually stayed the night, which is up 36 percent, and total tourism spending came to about 3,326 billion dong.

The number that says the most is the flights. There were 810 in and out over those five days, up 19 percent, averaging 162 a day. That is roughly 26 more flights every day than the same week last year.

If the beach felt impossible and your usual coffee place had a queue out the door, that is why. Worth knowing before the next long weekend, because this is not going back down.

Work began on 25 August on the junction where Le Thanh Nghi, Cach Mang Thang Tam and Thang Long meet the approach to Hoa Xuan Bridge. Anybody who crosses it at half past five knows exactly why.

The plan is a multi level junction with underpasses, plus a second bridge running parallel to the existing one, 303.5 metres long and 14 metres wide.

The part to plan around: 730 days. Two years of a construction site on the main southern route between the centre and Hoa Xuan.

If that is your commute, this is the week to work out your second route rather than the week it closes.

Three weeks and a day away. You will already have seen the boxes stacked up in every bakery and half the convenience stores, because in Vietnam the mooncake is mostly a gift rather than a dessert, and the giving starts weeks before the eating.

There are two kinds and they are not versions of each other. Banh nuong is the baked one, wheat flour, dark glossy top, the one most foreigners picture. Banh deo is white, soft, and never goes near an oven.

We wrote the story of the second one this week, because it is the one nobody explains and it is the Vietnamese one.

Read it at lifeofdanang.com/story/banh-deo

If you want lanterns, Hoi An is the place, and the closer it gets to the 25th the harder that walk becomes.

September is the turn. Da Nang gets somewhere around fifteen to twenty days with rain in a normal September, but most of it arrives as a hard shower that empties the street for an hour and then stops.

That is not the same as the wet season proper. For this coast the serious weather is October and November, and forecasters expect eight to ten tropical storms across Vietnam this year, with three to five reaching the mainland.

Nothing is coming this week. This is the month to get the boring things done rather than the month to worry: check that your rain cover is actually in the bike seat, find out whether your building floods, and if you have a trip planned to Cu Lao Cham, know that the boats stop when the sea gets up.

One honest caveat. Forecasts change. We will tell you when something is actually on the way rather than every time a headline says it might be.