I don't often find a place that brings me as much joy as this just did so now I feel compelled to do a little promotion for them. This is not the bowling alley that my weekly group goes to because it is "too far away" meaning that we have to be in a taxi for like 20 minutes to get there which is probably normal for most of you but for us, we won't tolerate such distances.
I had been here before in the past and could tell that the lanes here were in much better shape. I liked it a lot back then but there was one glaring problem: They didn't have very many bowling balls with finger holes big enough for western hands. When my friends and I decided to go I thought we were going to have to share 2 bowling balls or so between all of us but they have since rectified that problem and now there are plenty to choose from.
Now not only do they have plenty of bowling balls to choose from, they actually organize them by weight and even color. This is in stark contrast to the cheap lanes that we go to with our group because at that place they normally don't even re-rack the balls at all and if you have a type that you like it could be a while before you find what you are looking for. The service at this place is definitely a LOT better. You can tell that Paradise Lanes is interested in quality over quantity and perhaps that is why I noticed groups of people that were sitting at the "pro" end of the lanes that all had their own gear and were getting seriously high scores. You will never see any of these types at Lotte Mart Speed Bowl, which is where we normally go.
The lanes here are all identical and it is clear that they put a lot of time and effort into making sure that the players are getting the proper bowling experience. I am a spin bowler so oil patterns are very important to me. I witnessed the staff actually oiling the lane while we were there whereas I question whether or not the people at Lotte Mart ever actually oil the lanes at all.
These two machines are absolutely essential to getting a land oiled correctly and Paradise Lanes clearly gives a crap because not only do they have modern looking machines but they had tech operating them that really seemed to know what they are doing. At Lotte Mart where we normally go, the machine they have looks like a burnt out R2-D2 and it frequently gets stuck halfway down the lane. I truly believe that if I wasn't there watching the guy when this happened that he would have just moved on to the next lane instead of fixing whatever the problem was.
The scoring technology is also at least 10 years ahead of the other place that we go. A problem that we frequently encounter at our weekly bowling outings is that the machines get the scores wrong by not recognizing what pins are still standing, giving out strikes and spares that didn't happen, or doing the reverse and not giving you as many pins as you actually knocked down. This happens at least a dozen times at the lanes we normally go to. It didn't happen a single time at Paradise Lanes. Again, Paradise seems to actually give a crap whereas Lotte Mart doesn't really seem to care at all.
They also have a lot of rules here and they expect people to adhere to them. This, for an American like me, is just "normal" operating procedure for a bowling alley but in most of the places I have been bowling in SE Asia, alleys are just a free-for-all with people going mental and having zero regard for courtesy. When a lane of younger people were acting up and walking all over the place out of their area a few lanes down from us, the staff came over and made them stop doing that. I'm all about kids having fun but there is a time and place. Lotte Mart lets people do whatever the hell they want to even if it is damaging their equipment. Perhaps that is why most of their equipment at Lotte is frequently in a state of near broken.
At Paradise Lanes they even have a pro shop, which is something I hadn't noticed when we came here years ago. This is always a good sign because people in a pro shop are normally at least semi-professional bowlers and if you want your own gear, they know what kind of gear to get you. I have no intention of getting my own bowling ball because they are heavy and I don't want a trip to the bowling alley to not be something I can't do on a bicycle or motorbike. I wouldn't mind getting my own shoes though because rental shoes are disgusting and are frequently falling apart. Again, this is something that is much more likely to occur at Lotte than at Paradise Lanes. All the shoes we got while we were there were in really good condition the way that bowling shoes are supposed to be. At Lotte, if we have any shoes at all that don't look 15 years old and falling apart, it is because someone has their own shoes.
Unfortunately if you live here in Da Nang and especially if you are living here. Paradise Lanes is a bit far away from where you are but if you want a "real" bowling experience you are going to have to make the trek because the other two bowling alleys appear to not even be trying to be professional. You can find it on this map.
It only costs about $1.50 per game and there are hourly rentals of $12 per lane regardless of how many people you put on the lane. Despite all of these wonderful things that I have just said, we are not going to move here with my bowling group that happens on Thursdays. There are only about 4 people in our group that would even notice the difference as far as the oil is concerned and it is too far away from where everyone lives. I know that I will be going back there on my own though and if you are in town and want real bowling, this is the ONLY place to go.