If you know me you know that I am not passionate about very many things but one of them is 10-pin bowling and the group that we have here in Da Nang called DUMBO (Danang Underground Mental Bowling Organization.) We get anywhere from 15-30 people to the lanes every Thursday and we basically take over the place. We have been going at the same time on the same day each week for more than 3 years (excluding the Covid times when it was closed.) Therefore, the staff there give us extra special treatment including not allowing anyone, even Vietnamese people, to use the lanes until it is determined how many of the lanes we will need. Then, except in rare situations, they will not put people on the lanes directly next to us because we are slightly more professional in our bowling than the average group of teenagers.
I will admit that the lanes that we have been using have been in really bad form for most of the past 3 years and this was something that we would have complained about if it weren't for the fact that we all get to bowl for 2 hours and it costs us just over $4. I don't think you can even get one game of bowling in my home country for that much.
The shoes were in terrible shape, the chairs and other areas were a mess constantly, and they almost never oiled the lanes properly. It just looked like hell but there really wasn't any reason for them to ever improve it.
I don't know what happened to their budget in the past month but they have made some really nice and very much needed improvements to the overall bowling experience.
For one thing they really brightened the place up by putting on a new coat of paint. Previously the walls were all white, which of course meant they were all stained with people putting their disgusting hands and also feet on the walls for years in a row.
Although I think they will end up regretting this decision, they also put new benches in that are made of upholstered material. While I do like them in their current state I can only imagine what they are going to look like a year from now after they have had pepsi and beer spilled all over them.
They also somehow acquired a ton more bowling balls. I would say that they have actually ended up with too many of them because there aren't enough slots in the racks to put them all back. This can be problematic when the racks are full and the ball return is nearly overflowing with balls as well. We have tried to tell the staff that they don't actually NEED 55 10-lb balls when there are only 12 lanes but I don't think they really care. We just take them and put them on the floor in the back there... hopefully one day they will get the point.
here is one of the only images I can find on my phone of the way the lanes looked before the paint job. I know it is just aesthetics but it does a log for the place. You can also see the crap plastic chairs they had before. most of them were cracked and broken and they were always very dirty. This is something that concerns me about the new red upholstered ones because if they didn't wipe down plastic chairs do you really think they are going to steam clean upholstered sofas when they get dirty? My money is on "no."
One of the main things that I have been really happy with in the past few weeks is that after months of us badgering them, they appear to actually be focusing on oiling the lanes properly. If you don't know much about bowling I'll let you in a little secret: Improperly oiled lanes function VERY differently than ones that have the correct amount of oil applied to them. This is especially true for people like me that bowl with a curve. If there is no oil, your curve is going to be wildly out of control. With too much oil, the rotation doesn't have a chance to grip the lane at all. It is a science of sorts, but they have a machine for this, it's not like Nguyen is out there with a bucket of oil and a squirt gun.
Speaking of bowling with a curve, a friend of mine sent me this meme because he bowls without a curve and routinely does better than I do.
To most people, Ron has a point there. Unless you can make it work for you there really isn't much purpose, other than showing off, in having a curved roll. My 6 foot 7, 300lb friend rolls the absolute hell out of a 15 lb ball and I'm surprised he hasn't broken something at this point. My lightly rolled curvey ball does look better, but unless I am seriously on point that day, there isn't much of an advantage in doing it that way.
If you live in Da Nang or find yourself here some day and want to go bowling. The Lotte Mart Lanes are at least for now, probably about as good as they are ever going to be. Come and find us at 11am on Thursdays if you want to meet a bunch of locals. Don't worry if you are not good, most of us aren't either.