Hitting up the bowling alley in foreign territory in Da Lat, Vietnam

Just because I am on vacation away from my bowling group doesn't mean that I am not going to do everything that I possibly can to participate in what has become my favorite "sport." I put sport in quotes because I don't think bowling is actually exercise: When you have a group of people that are the stars of a game and most of them are overweight, I don't think we are talking about actual athletes and therefore it is not really a sport.

So, when I found out that Da Lat has a bowling alley that became out plan for the day. I went at exactly the same time as my group in Da Nang called D.U.M.B.O. goes but of course my scores don't count for the league.

The lanes in Da Lat were a bit smaller than the ones we have in Da Nang but that is understandable seeing as how there are over a million residents in Da Nang and Da Lat has significantly fewer people. I was kind of impressed with how well maintained it was here though.

one of the main issues I have with our lanes in Da Nang is that they don't seem overly concerned with getting the oil patters correct and I don't really think they even know how to. Here in Da Lat they have clearly been better educated about the oiling of lanes and every lane was identical in how it was oiled.

Done properly, the oiling of a lane is not even meant to begin until a certain distance down the lane. I don't know why this is but one benefit is that you have far fewer people completely busting their asses when they accidentally cross the foul line. We have had multiple people completely faceplant in the Da Nang lanes because they accidentally stepped a few inches over the line and then hit was is essentially ice on the other side. One person in a bowling alley that was improperly maintained in Thailand actually broke their arm because of a slip.

On a properly maintained lane the oil is pretty thick in the center, lighter on the outsides than in the middle, and doesn't exist at all about a meter or so on both ends. This is what allows players who spin like I do to get that "cut" that dives in the pins at an angle at the last second.

We were the only people that were here to bowl but there were a few people in the back that were playing pool. The music was at a reasonable volume and everything seemed perfect. But this is still Vietnam and they are not a bowling country so I knew I was going to find some fault. One thing they did terribly wrong was that they didn't provide any dry towels to get the oil off of the balls. This means that every ball in the joint was basically covered in goop so this shows that they too don't really understand the purpose behind the oiling of lanes. In order for a ball to curve correctly, the ball needs to be dry before hitting the oil. It should be picking up the oil on the way to the pins, not already be covered in the crap. I believe that it is actually against PBA rules to have any sort of lubricant on the ball before it is thrown and this is also why you see the pros constantly wiping their balls down.

So this was annoying because it was very difficult for me to convey that I needed a dry towel and when they brought me one, it was the size of a small hand towel and rather ineffective. My game suffered as a consequence but since the scores were irrelevant as far as league play is concerned, I just kind of left it alone.

My score is the one on the top and I was relatively pleased with my performance during the first 4 frames. Then, as is tradition with me, my game completely fell apart. 133 is right around my average so I guess I was ok with that. I just felt that after nailing the first 4 frames that I was going to have one hell of a game to boast about to my pals back in Da Nang but alas, I failed. The 2nd game was much worse at a mere 112 so I didn't even bother taking a picture of that.

It wasn't an issue for us because we were the only people bowling but I was kind of surprised that there were ash trays in the lanes. The days of being allowed to smoke indoors is kind of behind us on a global scale but in Vietnam, rules seem to be merely suggestions. As a recovered smoker who gave up the habit around 6 years ago, I absolutely hate cigarette smoke, so I don't like that this is being allowed. A few of our members back in DUMBO smoke like they are going to die if they don't light up every 8 minutes so I am happy that this is strictly prohibited at our home lanes.

As pathetic as it might sound to people who are not a fan of bowling, this has actually been my favorite day since arriving here in Da Lat. This area is known for its nature but most of it is pretty far away from where we are staying so we haven't been doing a great deal of that outside of the nature reserve that is a part of our resort. Tomorrow we head out to some waterfalls and we'll see if my lungs can keep up with the elevation. As it stands now I am noticing that I get winded a lot easier than I do back home where everything is at sea level. We shall see!