Long bike ride results in me finding quiet neighborhoods again

There really isn't a lot of nature here in the sprawling city of Da Nang and if there is any of it, it is probably some tiny park that is going to be completely overrun with other people any time of day other than the dead heat of afternoon.

There is a lot that I like about living in Da Nang but the population density definitely isn't one of them. Lately I have found this "island" that is about 4 or 5 km from where I live and while it appears as though this are has been pre-planned to be another extension of the sprawling metro area, it hasn't happened yet and as of right now, it is a wonderful place to go cycling.

Quiet streets like this that have good cement / tarmac, powerlines that go all the way down to it and include streetlights are all over the place in these neighborhoods that almost nobody lives in yet

They've also got these places that could be wonderful if they were maintained along the river that surrounds this "island" but I'm not going to get on anyone's case about the fact that it isn't maintained because almost nobody lives there and very few people other than me make the trip to go over there an enjoy the empty streets, yet.

I am celebrating the fact that there is nobody here because trust me, there will be, oh there will be.. and once that floodgate starts this entire places is going to be an unbearably noisy round-the-clock construction nightmare just like most of the rest of the city.

As it is now there is almost no development here, just a few restaurants and almost zero housing. I truly wish there was a rental out there that I could work out, because I would definitely move there.

near the other side of this "river" is some of the only remaining farmland in Da Nang and honestly, this is so peaceful and rare here. These tiny roads are likely kept tiny because if they made them wider jagoffs that are trying to shave 3 seconds off their travel time would barrel down them in cars and trucks of all sorts even though they are not supposed to do that. With them being as narrow as they are the larger vehicles cannot fit on the road at all and smaller cars, if they encountered another car, would face a very long game of "who is going to reverse for 300 meters?" I hope they NEVER expand this road, we have enough cement already, thanks.

That's one thing about Da Nang that is done very well that I don't think is the case in most developing nations. They clearly put a lot of time into pre-planning areas and ensuring that the roads would be adequate enough for the amount of people that are going to be driving on them. This is true almost everywhere outside of a few choke points where a simple adjustment of the traffic lights would probably sort the situation out. On a bicycle these kinds of things don't really apply to me because i'll just ride on the sidewalks at the choke points.

I keep referring to this place as an "island" in quotes because it has bridges on all sides of it and even though Google maps is actually incorrect (that's rare) the south and west sides of it also have a river or some other sort of waterway going through it. This area is only accessible by 4 medium sized bridges and at the moment anyway, only one of these "highways" is very heavily used and even it, is NOT heavily used compared to the rest of the city.

This area, as you can see in the gmap above is completely gridded out already. There are roadsigns on every corner, there is good drainage and water supplied to the entirety of the area. The only thing that is waiting to happen now is for someone to actually move something in over there. I hope that I can be one of the people that gets one of those because even though I only live about 7km from the center of this area, it feels like a completely different world when you are there. If I was to move I would no longer be able to just pop down to the street to get more milk, but I also wouldn't have to deal with 7am to 7pm construction noise, constant beeping of horns, or the advertisement motorbikes driving by every damn day until midnight.

This is a dream of mine to live over on this "island" but if I cannot make it happen, I suppose I will just continue to visit it on my bicycle.