Bowling in Vietnam is a different experience to the west

When i would go bowling in USA it was a very serious matter. There are some folks that take bowling really really seriously and with good reason. It is a fun game and there are some people out there that are seriously good at it. There are a lot of courtesy rules about how to behave even when it is not your turn to roll. Boisterous activities on the sidelines will normally not be tolerated by attendees and I have actually seen some people that were removed from the lanes for being too noisy and not observing courtesy rules.

Now when you get to Vietnam you are going to be in for a big surprise if you are expecting any of that.

At first glance this appears like any other bowling alley experience but there are some stark differences. For one thing there doesn't seem to be any sort of courtesy going on as people wander onto the play area and even walk in front of other people's lanes to talk to their friends that were on the other side of us. This is fine because they were kids and we were patient and eventually they cut it out when they observed that we were not happy about it.

It wasn't a big deal but I have been in other alleys where the same sort of lawlessness was going on.

We are not experts at the game by any stretch, but we kind of know how to play a little bit in that we know what the arrows are for an even adjust our stances accordingly. One of our crew knows how to "hook" the ball using a spin motion.

The major difference is that this place was extremely loud. They have booming music playing over the loudspeakers to the point where you can't even talk to the people in your own little area without shouting. This is something I have noticed about most places that have loudspeakers of any sort in Vietnam, they will take it to 11 every time. There was also an arcade located directly behind us so if any kids were there playing air hockey you have another distraction.

When in Rome.... as they say. I was not going to complain because I am a guest in this country and if this is the way they bowl, I will have to adapt. I thought the same thing about when I attended a baseball game in Korea. It was basically a big party that just happened to have a baseball game going on in the background - most of the attendees seemed quite indifferent to the game that was going on.

I barely broke 100 points and I am not going to try to blame that on the noise, it is because even at my best I was an average bowler at best and I hadn't played in nearly 8 years yesterday. I just found the entire operation to be a bit strange and very different to the quiet and very serious situation that exists in lanes in USA. It was fun, but actually so loud that my ears hurt a bit after I left.