Da Nang, Dream City for Remote Workers
Happy Sunday yall, pleased to announce that Danang indeed lives up to the hype - both RVFs hype and my own, as I'd been trying to check DN out for some years now. I'll try to format this in somewhat the same way as my Singapore Datasheet
The City
Da Nang is situated between large mountains and a seriously long beach, so it's great for active men. There's not much to do during the day, with 2-3 solid sites of interest, but surprisingly DN greatly makes up for it at night. I was blown away by the sheer number of night spots running their course through the roads. While small business reigns supreme, there's a handful of "modern" chains such as your Pizza Huts and KFCs, just enough to keep you tethered although malls are lacking in A/C. The main attraction would be along the river's west bank. However, all resorts and establishments aimed at the 40+ crowd are in the southeast sector of the city.
Locals are much more friendly here than the attitudes of Hanoi or Saigonese out here. All around my block people would say hello, from chicks to security guards. Girls are hotter than expected, even hotter than the ones in the airport which is the 1st time that's happened to me ever. Still, I find vietnamese girls (and their language) pretty annoying compared to Thai or Chinese girls. Was freaked at first when I heard DN is the 3rd-most populated with expats - and fastest rising - but rest assured they seem to have zero presence/influence here. That means 1) high white god factor 2) lots of industrial / business opportunities waiting to be infiltrated
The only con about Danang is the lack of mystery. Everything is plainly laid-out, there's no secretive areas in the city or exciting gang-related activity. It's not romantic and lacking in style and history - DN has an identity crisis; neutral, stuck between city and countryside atmosphere, and scared to try new things. But, if you want to clear your mind or have a solid harem it's probably hard to care.
Bars & Clubs
Like other posters have said, pickup at the venues was a mostly fruitless affair. Sometimes I went out with hostel dudes, sometimes solo, once with a chick I met on WeChat. I can say for sure that rolling solo is *not* a very successful approach - unlike at street cafes, girls kinda wonder what you are doing talking to them. While there are some wild Saigonese-type dancers out there, the combination of insanely loud music, cliquey attitudes, sober girls doesn't exactly make it an SNL paradise.
Thankfully, 1) there is not much prostitution going on here 2) English levels are pretty high, if your target doesn't speak English, certainly one of her girlfriends does.
Venues:
Bamboo Bar - on the corner at Bach Dang, this multi-story bar had a lot of expats and a great spot to get insider information on DN. I think it has a rep for westerners to hang at because a bunch of college dudes kept trying to talk to me to practice English or something. Both sets I approached afterwards were from Saigon (!) for some reason there are actually a lot of Saigonese doing business trips in DN, got their #'s and kept saying "come visit me in SG.." oh well. Music surprisingly loud even on weekdays but come if you've got pool game.
Golden Pine - small but insanely popping bar at the end of Bach Dang. Girls have a bit of a hipster edge and it's predominantly locals drinking towers of beer, only saw 2-3 foreigners. Personally I had a bad night here as this was the time I rolled solo but who knows what happens after 2am.
Phuong Dong - overall a waste of time, not unlike the big dodgy clubs of Saigon. All it does is make your mouth water at all the smoking hot girls there, and fucks up your game for putting them on a pedestal. Not that you can talk to them anyway. My hostelmates certainly had a good time and got ripped off by some chick that kept manipulating them into buying cocktails XD I felt pigeonholed into the sex-tourist group and couldn't build rapport with anyone.
I did *not* visit Sky 36. Actually, I did not find out about it until I left DN. But I imagine it's like Phuong Dong. In any case, felt more successful opening girls at street cafes around 8-9pm, overall.
Getting Girls
So, how TO get girls in Da Nang. You've got to flex your daygame muscles and open up tons of sets in the day during various tourist sites OR by the river. They were extremely successful. Just do either of the 2 things:
1) insert yourself into their photos. works *every* time and gets them laughing and flattered that they were the "chosen ones" for the foreigner to tease. This segues into looking at the picture, telling them to take a picture with your camera, showing them your old pictures of USA or wherever... until you get the facebook or #. Their girlfriends will approve. It helps a lot if you know random vietnamese phrases like "oi zoi oi", "[girl] ya hoi" "toi niep" to perk them up. If you're not living in DN, lie about it. I personally would tell them I was looking for a university job ("Dai Hoc") here. It implies long-term stay and avoids the whole english-teacher persona.
2) ask them an extremely dumb / sarcastic questions at tourist sites. For reference the top 2 tourist spots are the White Pagoda on the upper peninsula, and Marble Mountains down south. I personally throw in a lot of off-the-wall innudendo about Buddha, babies, rice wine. It helps if there's an event going on or some kind of public game show so you can ask them dumb questions about the show. The best part about DN is that most sets are all-girls, so I actually never had to deal with dudes out here. With your *extremely* dumb Q's, most western women would get the sarcasm, but VNese of course don't and are instead instantly intrigued.
Despite being daytime you've got to run extremely direct game. Do NOT beat around the bush here and you cannot take yourself seriously, VNese are obsessed with romance and automatically see every foreign dude as a romantic opportunity. Tease them about not having a boyfriend, act all heartbroken about a previous girl, tell them you have a baby already, anything blatant that gets the gears going. If you're new to pickup it might be hard to dive directly into sexual teasing but especially when they initiate, never backtrack onto more formal topics. Strangely, as night sets in I found it becomes less appropriate to be sexual/direct, perhaps because of prostitution stigma, hope others can confirm this.
Mall game: I visited 3 malls during my stay and the experience was horrendus. Not only are the girls working there fugly but they seem to really want to *only* do their job. As if their managers are hovering over them at all times. I don't understand why Jakarta, Manila can have such an epic, playful mall game scene and Vietnam's be shit.
Online game: I used both WeChat and Tinder during my week here. Wechat worked wonders, almost every girl accepted my greeting. There's a guide on WeChat in RVF that is for China but works the same in VN as well, just with more prostitutes. Tinder was also okay for me especially compared to Singapore, but at least half of them were actually from Saigon. Get them on a yes ladder ("do you have motorbike" "do you know a famous mi quang" "are you with a friend soon") before getting them to meet. I met with 1 chick here via WeChat though she turned out to be kinda wierd. My online game here was too aggressive and that will NOT work, these chicks take fucking days to warm up to you, want you around for the long haul before investing which is why DN is ideal for 6-month long haul remote workers. Unlike Phils/Indonesia, girls here DO have lives and busy healthy social circles, so they're not exactly dropping everything they've got going on to meet you.
Hoi An
I'm not sure how you can make a datasheet about Da Nang without mentioning Hoi An, a gem just 30 minutes ride away. As much of a Vietnam-purist I am (after all, I did live here for 1 year) Hoi An was honestly a more pleasant experience. I didn't go into this town with the intention of pickup but it turned out to be a goldmine. You would think that other than a weekend trip with your date, Hoi An can't work itself into your pickup.. Allow me to blow your minds...
Firstly, Hoi An is frequented by domestic travelers throughout central Vietnam - primarily Da Nang and Hue. 80% of visitors are still Vietnamese trying to have a good time and blow some money. What this does is it weeds out the shitty girls - and you are left with the hotter, richer, and English-speaking girls - in other words, exactly what you wanted in Da Nang anyway. The problem with countryside DN mentality is they don't even "get" what's the advantage of being with a foreigner; you have to access the upper echelon to find the ones that do. Hoi An is like a convenient filter that gets you exactly the girls you want without having to explore every corner of Da Nang, so that once you go back you've already got a harem lined up.
Secondly, remember that going to street events / tourist sites are the #1 way to hook in with groups of Vietnamese chicks. Well Hoi An is littered with traditional street events, all throughout the year. These are exotic even for Vietnamese girls, so you can bond over the experience together. Again do the insert-self-in-pictures thing, and ask them silly innuendo questions about the event and the gigglethon won't end. They don't live in Hoi An, and you won't bang them in Hoi An, but you should give it 100% because you are smart and think long-term. I've had a couple groups invite me to Da Nang and ask to hang out, and it was gut-wrenching knowing I wouldn't be going back.
*as a side-note, go from Thurs-Mon, that's when Hoi An is most packed. For a more personal experience, Tues/Weds clear up
Venues: there are about 5 bars / clubs in the entirety of Hoi An. The entire town shuts down after about 9:30pm, and your best bets on the action are to hang by the main bridge (that connects to island) and pick up flyers being handed out by foreigners trying to promote their bars. Although their "deals" are ripoffs, they are the place to meet tons of DTF backpacker chicks. The biggest bar was called "The King" and was comparable to the venues in DN. If that's your scene you should also stay at the "Sunflower Hotel" which is where that party's at. There's also a bar dedicated to Couchsurfing (yes, it's called "Couchsurfing bar") on the east side of Tieu La - there, at least you'll find some Vietnamese local chicks in the mix. Note that Tinder here was chock full of white girls who are probably looking for a guy with a private room.
For a more detailed rundown on how to bang conservative Vietnamese girls, I did a quick write-up on Afarang's blog, which a lot of was inspired by Da Nang.
Hoi An is the overall superior experience - better food, better sights, more authentic feel, better hospitality and hotter girls place it well above Da Nang as an experience, but obviously not as a place to base yourself. For remote workers, DN's endless cafes and top-notch 3G Viettel experience (better than Singapore's) and untapped business markets gets it an A+.
.
Happy Sunday yall, pleased to announce that Danang indeed lives up to the hype - both RVFs hype and my own, as I'd been trying to check DN out for some years now. I'll try to format this in somewhat the same way as my Singapore Datasheet
The City
Da Nang is situated between large mountains and a seriously long beach, so it's great for active men. There's not much to do during the day, with 2-3 solid sites of interest, but surprisingly DN greatly makes up for it at night. I was blown away by the sheer number of night spots running their course through the roads. While small business reigns supreme, there's a handful of "modern" chains such as your Pizza Huts and KFCs, just enough to keep you tethered although malls are lacking in A/C. The main attraction would be along the river's west bank. However, all resorts and establishments aimed at the 40+ crowd are in the southeast sector of the city.
Locals are much more friendly here than the attitudes of Hanoi or Saigonese out here. All around my block people would say hello, from chicks to security guards. Girls are hotter than expected, even hotter than the ones in the airport which is the 1st time that's happened to me ever. Still, I find vietnamese girls (and their language) pretty annoying compared to Thai or Chinese girls. Was freaked at first when I heard DN is the 3rd-most populated with expats - and fastest rising - but rest assured they seem to have zero presence/influence here. That means 1) high white god factor 2) lots of industrial / business opportunities waiting to be infiltrated
The only con about Danang is the lack of mystery. Everything is plainly laid-out, there's no secretive areas in the city or exciting gang-related activity. It's not romantic and lacking in style and history - DN has an identity crisis; neutral, stuck between city and countryside atmosphere, and scared to try new things. But, if you want to clear your mind or have a solid harem it's probably hard to care.
Bars & Clubs
Like other posters have said, pickup at the venues was a mostly fruitless affair. Sometimes I went out with hostel dudes, sometimes solo, once with a chick I met on WeChat. I can say for sure that rolling solo is *not* a very successful approach - unlike at street cafes, girls kinda wonder what you are doing talking to them. While there are some wild Saigonese-type dancers out there, the combination of insanely loud music, cliquey attitudes, sober girls doesn't exactly make it an SNL paradise.
Thankfully, 1) there is not much prostitution going on here 2) English levels are pretty high, if your target doesn't speak English, certainly one of her girlfriends does.
Venues:
Bamboo Bar - on the corner at Bach Dang, this multi-story bar had a lot of expats and a great spot to get insider information on DN. I think it has a rep for westerners to hang at because a bunch of college dudes kept trying to talk to me to practice English or something. Both sets I approached afterwards were from Saigon (!) for some reason there are actually a lot of Saigonese doing business trips in DN, got their #'s and kept saying "come visit me in SG.." oh well. Music surprisingly loud even on weekdays but come if you've got pool game.
Golden Pine - small but insanely popping bar at the end of Bach Dang. Girls have a bit of a hipster edge and it's predominantly locals drinking towers of beer, only saw 2-3 foreigners. Personally I had a bad night here as this was the time I rolled solo but who knows what happens after 2am.
Phuong Dong - overall a waste of time, not unlike the big dodgy clubs of Saigon. All it does is make your mouth water at all the smoking hot girls there, and fucks up your game for putting them on a pedestal. Not that you can talk to them anyway. My hostelmates certainly had a good time and got ripped off by some chick that kept manipulating them into buying cocktails XD I felt pigeonholed into the sex-tourist group and couldn't build rapport with anyone.
I did *not* visit Sky 36. Actually, I did not find out about it until I left DN. But I imagine it's like Phuong Dong. In any case, felt more successful opening girls at street cafes around 8-9pm, overall.
Getting Girls
So, how TO get girls in Da Nang. You've got to flex your daygame muscles and open up tons of sets in the day during various tourist sites OR by the river. They were extremely successful. Just do either of the 2 things:
1) insert yourself into their photos. works *every* time and gets them laughing and flattered that they were the "chosen ones" for the foreigner to tease. This segues into looking at the picture, telling them to take a picture with your camera, showing them your old pictures of USA or wherever... until you get the facebook or #. Their girlfriends will approve. It helps a lot if you know random vietnamese phrases like "oi zoi oi", "[girl] ya hoi" "toi niep" to perk them up. If you're not living in DN, lie about it. I personally would tell them I was looking for a university job ("Dai Hoc") here. It implies long-term stay and avoids the whole english-teacher persona.
2) ask them an extremely dumb / sarcastic questions at tourist sites. For reference the top 2 tourist spots are the White Pagoda on the upper peninsula, and Marble Mountains down south. I personally throw in a lot of off-the-wall innudendo about Buddha, babies, rice wine. It helps if there's an event going on or some kind of public game show so you can ask them dumb questions about the show. The best part about DN is that most sets are all-girls, so I actually never had to deal with dudes out here. With your *extremely* dumb Q's, most western women would get the sarcasm, but VNese of course don't and are instead instantly intrigued.
Despite being daytime you've got to run extremely direct game. Do NOT beat around the bush here and you cannot take yourself seriously, VNese are obsessed with romance and automatically see every foreign dude as a romantic opportunity. Tease them about not having a boyfriend, act all heartbroken about a previous girl, tell them you have a baby already, anything blatant that gets the gears going. If you're new to pickup it might be hard to dive directly into sexual teasing but especially when they initiate, never backtrack onto more formal topics. Strangely, as night sets in I found it becomes less appropriate to be sexual/direct, perhaps because of prostitution stigma, hope others can confirm this.
Mall game: I visited 3 malls during my stay and the experience was horrendus. Not only are the girls working there fugly but they seem to really want to *only* do their job. As if their managers are hovering over them at all times. I don't understand why Jakarta, Manila can have such an epic, playful mall game scene and Vietnam's be shit.
Online game: I used both WeChat and Tinder during my week here. Wechat worked wonders, almost every girl accepted my greeting. There's a guide on WeChat in RVF that is for China but works the same in VN as well, just with more prostitutes. Tinder was also okay for me especially compared to Singapore, but at least half of them were actually from Saigon. Get them on a yes ladder ("do you have motorbike" "do you know a famous mi quang" "are you with a friend soon") before getting them to meet. I met with 1 chick here via WeChat though she turned out to be kinda wierd. My online game here was too aggressive and that will NOT work, these chicks take fucking days to warm up to you, want you around for the long haul before investing which is why DN is ideal for 6-month long haul remote workers. Unlike Phils/Indonesia, girls here DO have lives and busy healthy social circles, so they're not exactly dropping everything they've got going on to meet you.
Hoi An
I'm not sure how you can make a datasheet about Da Nang without mentioning Hoi An, a gem just 30 minutes ride away. As much of a Vietnam-purist I am (after all, I did live here for 1 year) Hoi An was honestly a more pleasant experience. I didn't go into this town with the intention of pickup but it turned out to be a goldmine. You would think that other than a weekend trip with your date, Hoi An can't work itself into your pickup.. Allow me to blow your minds...
Firstly, Hoi An is frequented by domestic travelers throughout central Vietnam - primarily Da Nang and Hue. 80% of visitors are still Vietnamese trying to have a good time and blow some money. What this does is it weeds out the shitty girls - and you are left with the hotter, richer, and English-speaking girls - in other words, exactly what you wanted in Da Nang anyway. The problem with countryside DN mentality is they don't even "get" what's the advantage of being with a foreigner; you have to access the upper echelon to find the ones that do. Hoi An is like a convenient filter that gets you exactly the girls you want without having to explore every corner of Da Nang, so that once you go back you've already got a harem lined up.
Secondly, remember that going to street events / tourist sites are the #1 way to hook in with groups of Vietnamese chicks. Well Hoi An is littered with traditional street events, all throughout the year. These are exotic even for Vietnamese girls, so you can bond over the experience together. Again do the insert-self-in-pictures thing, and ask them silly innuendo questions about the event and the gigglethon won't end. They don't live in Hoi An, and you won't bang them in Hoi An, but you should give it 100% because you are smart and think long-term. I've had a couple groups invite me to Da Nang and ask to hang out, and it was gut-wrenching knowing I wouldn't be going back.
*as a side-note, go from Thurs-Mon, that's when Hoi An is most packed. For a more personal experience, Tues/Weds clear up
Venues: there are about 5 bars / clubs in the entirety of Hoi An. The entire town shuts down after about 9:30pm, and your best bets on the action are to hang by the main bridge (that connects to island) and pick up flyers being handed out by foreigners trying to promote their bars. Although their "deals" are ripoffs, they are the place to meet tons of DTF backpacker chicks. The biggest bar was called "The King" and was comparable to the venues in DN. If that's your scene you should also stay at the "Sunflower Hotel" which is where that party's at. There's also a bar dedicated to Couchsurfing (yes, it's called "Couchsurfing bar") on the east side of Tieu La - there, at least you'll find some Vietnamese local chicks in the mix. Note that Tinder here was chock full of white girls who are probably looking for a guy with a private room.
For a more detailed rundown on how to bang conservative Vietnamese girls, I did a quick write-up on Afarang's blog, which a lot of was inspired by Da Nang.
Hoi An is the overall superior experience - better food, better sights, more authentic feel, better hospitality and hotter girls place it well above Da Nang as an experience, but obviously not as a place to base yourself. For remote workers, DN's endless cafes and top-notch 3G Viettel experience (better than Singapore's) and untapped business markets gets it an A+.
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The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.
DATASHEETS: Singapore (2014) | Vietnam (2015) | Cebu (2015) | Honolulu (2016) | Couchsurfing (2016) | KS, Taiwan (2018)
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