That week
in Da Nang.

Vietnam's national weather service published a heavy rain bulletin at half past three on Wednesday afternoon, 23 September.

From Wednesday evening through Thursday it expects 60 to 120 millimetres of rain from Quang Tri down to Da Nang and the east of Quang Ngai, with over 250 millimetres in a few spots. It warns that more than 100 millimetres can fall in three hours.

The next wet window, Thursday night and Friday, sits north of us, from Ha Tinh to Hue. From the night of Friday 25 September the service says the heavy rain fades. It puts the risk at level 1, the lowest level it gives.

Day by day for Da Nang, from the same service, updated at half past four on Wednesday morning. Thursday 24: cloudy with heavy rain, 27 degrees down to 25. Friday 25: cloudy with moderate rain, 29 down to 25. Saturday 26: showers and thunder, 31 down to 25.

Sunday 27: cloudy with no rain, 31 down to 25.

A second forecast says much the same. Open-Meteo, read on Wednesday, has about 12 millimetres of rain on Thursday and 15 on Friday, then under 3 millimetres on Saturday and again on Sunday.

No storm is heading for Da Nang. On Wednesday morning the United States navy typhoon centre had one system in the whole Pacific, Tropical Depression 25W, near 16.0 north and 138.4 east.

That is about 3,200 kilometres east of Da Nang and its forecast track runs north west towards the sea east of Taiwan, away from Vietnam. Our own weather service had no storm bulletin for this coast.

We checked all of this on Wednesday 23 September, one day before you read it. Weather here turns fast in the storm season, which runs to November, so look again on the morning you go out, at nchmf.gov.vn.

Real plans with a name, a place and a time. We checked every line on Wednesday 23 September.

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Local groups perform poetry, folk singing, old theatre, martial arts, chess and calligraphy out in the streets.

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Thursday and Friday, lantern making at AEON Mall Da Nang Thanh Khe, 46 Dien Bien Phu, in the Moon Hall, from five to nine in the evening. The workshop is called Cham Trang.

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Thursday to Sunday: lion dancing at B.FAIR on the Helio grounds, at the corner of Phan Dang Luu and 2 Thang 9. Eight every night, a different troupe each time, seven troupes in all. It is free.

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Also all three days, the Ngoc Linh ginseng and herbal medicine fair, on the ground opposite the Son Tra night market in An Hai. About 50 stalls and Co Tu gong playing. The city gave the days but no opening time.

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No time and no price were published for that one, and the village website was not loading when we checked, so call ahead before you drive out.

Thursday and Friday are the wet days. Look at the venue's own page before you leave home.

The full moon of Mid-Autumn falls on Friday 25 September. Hoi An runs its programme from 22 to 25 September, so Friday is the last of the four nights.

The Folk Culture Museum at 33 Nguyen Thai Hoc has a photo show about the Thien Cau lion dance, and a room where you can make a paper lantern, paint a mask and play old street games. It runs to Friday.

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The Sa Huynh Culture Museum at 149 Tran Phu has Music and Moon at seven on Friday night.

Map These dates come from the city tourism board's own programme, published on 21 September.

Friday will be the busiest of the four nights. If you want the old town with room to walk in it, Thursday is the quieter one.

On 22 September Lonely Planet named Da Nang in 50 Best Places to Go in 2027, part of its Best in Travel 2027 selection. Of those 50 places, Da Nang is the only one in Vietnam.

The line the guide gives the city is short: best for laid-back city beaches and UNESCO stops.

Its writer names My Khe beach, Son Tra, the Cham Sculpture Museum, Marble Mountains, Man Thai fish market, Con market and the river at night, plus day trips to Hue, My Son and Hoi An. The photo they used is the Golden Bridge.

For anyone who lives here, a list like this turns into more visitors later. Expect a busier beach road and fuller restaurants through 2027. If there is a table you like on a Saturday night, book it further ahead than you used to.

The city published a report on drainage on 19 September. It says water starts sitting in nine areas once rain reaches 40 to 50 millimetres in an hour. This week's bulletin warns of more than 100 millimetres in three hours.

The spots it names here are the Nui Thanh area, the Le Duan and Hoang Hoa Tham crossing, and Ha Huy Tap, Tran Cao Van and Le Tan Trung. In old Hoi An it names Cua Dai, Le Hong Phong and Lac Long Quan.

In old Tam Ky it names Hung Vuong, Phan Chau Trinh and Nguyen Tat Thanh.

Three drainage jobs are finished: the central drainage system at 311.9 billion dong, the second stage of the Ong Ich Khiem pump station at 46.78 billion, and a new underground pipe on Phung Hung at 72 billion.

A much larger flood project for Tam Ky and Hoi An, near 7,000 billion dong, is still being built. A ward officer in Hai Chau said cleaning the drains before the rainy season helps but does not remove the risk.

On 21 September a Da Nang delegation met the San Francisco side and raised four things: a contact point between the two city governments, a formal cooperation agreement, joint work on climate, and links between universities.

They also raised the idea of a direct flight between the two cities.

None of that is signed. There is no airline, no route and no date for a flight, only a request to study one.

On the same trip the delegation met NVIDIA and talked about the city's plan to build itself into an AI city, and about choosing projects that could start in 2027. A company called Cyfendo signed an agreement with the city's startup support centre.

Last week we wrote about the draft plan to pay part of the cost of chip and AI projects here. This is the same plan one step further along, and there is still nothing a person can apply for.

Friday 2 October, six in the evening until eleven, at Furama Resort on Vo Nguyen Giap. Map Tickets

The German Business Association runs it: German beer, live music and German food on the resort grounds. A normal ticket is 1,750,000 dong and you book through the organiser's own event page.

That is a week from tomorrow, so there is still time to get a group together.