There's nothing to do here except drink: Da Nang, Vietnam

If there is one thing I have noticed about any expat community that I have been a part of it is the same ol' excuse about alcoholism. I've lived in 6 different expat communities and I think that everyone says exactly the same thing in all of them.

When I first moved to Thailand to become a scuba instructor, I noticed one things about the people involved in living in Thailand that were not Thai very rapidly. Basically everyone was a "piss-head." I was happy to be a part of that back when I was in my 20's and rather carefree but now I've been part of expat communities for over 20 years, more of my adult life than I have lived in the country that is on my passport.

No matter which one of these areas you go to everyone basically lives the same way: Everyone just kind of bides their time around their houses for the first part of every day then right around happy hour everyone descends upon the local pubs and gets trashed. Every....single.....day.

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I think it was a Karl Pilkington series that I heard a Russian taxi driver say on the show and it was kind of funny and seeing how desolate it was where that guy was I suppose I could have agreed with him to some degree. But to hear someone say this in a tropical paradise of sorts where I live sounds to me like a bunch of BS.

people pay a lot of money to come to where I live and a lot of the folks that I know from high school and college are rather jealous of where it is that I have managed to land myself in life so when I heard a friend of mine say this yesterday - and yes, we were at a pub - I didn't really like it. I felt like he was attempting to justify his rather self-destructive lifestyle with what was a convenient excuse.

There are massive areas here that are dedicated to people lounging around in the sun and while the area is kind of lacking as far as parks are concerned, those too, also exist here. The person who just sits in their house and waits for some excitement or hobby to come to them, is being lazy if you ask me.

You want to be around a bunch of people, we have that. If you want to have a place on your own like the picture before this one, we also have that. It's not right outside your door though and maybe it doesn't have air conditioning.

There are also a number of activities that are indoors and have AC and can also be considered a somewhat healthy hobby.

My Thursday bowling group pulls in around 25-30 people a week and while booze is available there, most of the people in attendance choose not to drink. We go to a lunch / party afterwards and only about 50% of the people in the group actually booze up. I would say that the people that have beers are having a better time but you don't have to have alcohol to have a good time.

In Da Nang, as well as the rest of the world, there are groups that get together and play all manner of things. Hell, the other day I was walking my dog and saw a group of about half a dozen people that were getting ready to go on a run somewhere and I wish I had caught up to them before they took off because unless they are super fast, that's the kind of people I think I would like to know.

When I lived in a tiny city in Thailand, almost everyone drank all the time and there were very few people that I knew that didn't drink all the time. However, every now and then one of us would organize a group hike to a viewpoint or something like that and everyone's attitude would be the same at some point of "we should really do this more often."

Well.... what's stopping you?

My friend who said that nonsense about there being nothing to do here other than drink, well, he annoyed me with that. I spend most of my time feeling a bit annoyed about the lifestyle of a lot of the people here because I really believe they are throwing their lives away.

There is this one girl I know that moved here for a job. I don't know if it was a good job or not but it was a job. She was out on the drink almost every single night and it didn't take long before she was let go from that job. I know there were a number of days where I was returning from me and Nadi's morning walk and I would see her all disheveled looking as she was getting on a motorbike taxi to go to work several hours late. I think she used up all the patience of her bosses and used up all the imaginable excuses that one can use for being late and eventually they had enough.

She still lives here and hasn't had a job in over a year... but guess what she never misses and is never late for? Booze.

There is plenty to do here but people just choose not to do it. I have a bicycle and I go on rides every now and then and even have a harness where Nadi (my dog, in case you are just joining in) can fly along and absolutely loves it! Why not do something like that?

Yes it is hot outside, yes there are a lot of people all over the place but no, there is not "nothing to do but drink."

I see these people drifting into a lifestyle that is almost certainly going to cut their own lives short and if it was a sort of live fast and die young sort of thing I suppose I could congratulate them for grabbing life by the horns and having a good time... But here's the thing: They aren't having fun.

I dont' go in the pub every day but I do walk by some of my locals almost every day because it is on my dog walk path. The same people are staring at the same TV screens talking to the same people and pissing and moaning about how boring and tough their lives are.

We have 3 professional sport teams here and Da Nang is considered to be the pickleball capitol of the world. I don't really play that, but maybe I should. Maybe the people moaning about there being nothing to do but drink should also do so.

At the end of the day you are ultimately the only one responsible for how your life is going to turn out.

I know a lot of alcoholics that are not part of the expat scene, but there does seem to be a very common denominator in every single expat community that I have seen anywhere in the world. Booze is the only thing they know, and that is a damn shame.

Lately I've been limiting my drinking to Thursdays after bowling and special events. Meeting at the pub for drinks is not a "special event."

I don't think life is all that hard honestly. You just have to make some decisions every now and then that are a bit more difficult than parking your ass at the pub, staring at a TV that you already have at your house, and then consuming 1000 calories worth of something that you know is going to make you feel bad.