He Retired Early at 50 in Da Nang Vietnam | Now He Owns a Beach Bar!

He Retired Early at 50 in Da Nang Vietnam | Now He Owns a Beach Bar!

Today’s guest on the cost of living abroad is Trevor. A guy who spent years grinding away in Toronto in the sales world until one surprise trip to Thailand flipped his perspective. At 50, he decided to walk away from the hamster wheel, took a buyout, and retired early to Daang, Vietnam. 8 years later, he’s not only thriving, he’s married to a beautiful Vietnamese wife and business partner. And together, they own the city’s best expat hangout, Scallywags Bar and Grill. Stick around to the end to find out his true cost of living abroad and what it takes to run the best bar in a beach town in Vietnam. Hey Trevor, Evan, nice to meet you. Yeah, I’m pumped, man. I’m really excited to be at Scalliwags. Also to have you on the cost living abroad, pod. Excited to to talk about Daang the place about your story of coming here from Canada, switching careers, opening a bar, the whole thing. Let’s just sort of start at the jumping off point. What was your like inflection point or your why to to get out of Canada and to move to Southeast Asia? My last career was sales in publishing. And so I was at a place for about 11 years doing a sales grind. I got to a point where I was able to get um a buyout and I took it. I mean that’s that’s essentially how it happened. But before that I I we had done some sale junkets um like incentive tours. So, you know, we went to Hawaii, went to Australia cuz we had a a office in Australia and then one of them was Thailand. And Thailand was the first time I’d been to Southeast Asia and that was 2017 and that got my whole my whole brain thinking about, wow, this is pretty freaking cool. So, you I think about, oh, because we had an office in the Philippines. So, I think maybe I could work in the Philippines. when the opportunity came up, I I just, you know, to get a buyout and sort of get out of the rat race, I took it. So, once that happened, I I just did some research. Originally, I just, you know, it was like a sbatical basically. Um, you know, the the two things was uh were um you know, cost of living and I wanted to have an ocean. So, I I did research, looked at a lot of YouTube videos, which is hilarious. But I mean this is why it’s great that you do this man because I you know I’m I’m exact I was exact same position just you know what do I do? Where do I go? So I just I absorbed a lot of YouTube videos and Daang came up number one and that’s how I that’s how I got got to choose Daang. Land in Bangkok Thailand which was Phuket Ozen Phuket. Oh wow. Very different than Bangkok. Oh yeah. So it was like and it was only there like a week and it was like you know I just the whole Southeast Asia was just like you know going on the going on a scooter going up to uh the big Buddha on the top of the mountain. I mean I just I just it was so different and it’s just like oh my god it’s so peaceful and nice and uh it just got my you know it got my my brain thinking about how you know what a place it would be. you know, 2017, 2018, you’re doing a sales job full-time on the grind in Toronto. In Toronto, yeah, it was pretty good actually for for what I was doing. I mean, you know, for where I was. I I lived in Midtown Toronto, so St. Young and St. Clair. Oh, yeah. And uh nice place. And I had I had found um a really cool one-bedroom apartment that was on like what used to be the attict of one of those old big houses. And I was only paying 1,300 a month. So, you know, for Toronto, that was like that was great. So, it really wasn’t as much as the cost of living as it much was the the lifestyle. Mhm. The grind. So, I’m 58 now. So, I was like just over 50 by a lot of people’s standards. Still very like early for retirement. Were you like 100%. You’re like, “This is happening.” No, no, no. I was just It just I think it planted a seed in my brain. I mean, I was actively because we had an office in Manila. So, I think I was thinking how we’re going to get there because once you’re in it, like once you’re in, you’re making money and and how do you get out, you know? It’s like I I didn’t know how to get out. So, I was able to get out because of circumstances at work and they were offering packages. So, I just took it and that was just an opportunity cuz I was burnt out. I was like was unhealthy mental mentally, physically. Um I didn’t know what to do next. And at that age, like I didn’t want to start I didn’t want to [ __ ] look for I didn’t want to look for another job, of course. Yeah. Um so that was the whole reason to to just drop everything and go. And and and it was funny because when I knew I was going to get the the package, it was like a huge relief. Like I literally I felt it going I could I could leave because I’m also you know I’m not I wasn’t married and I didn’t have kids and I didn’t own a house you know I’d make money for good money for a few years so I had some money I had money from the package so I could leave. So I was in a a good situation from from that perspective and uh and and and I just it was like I I just made a decision. Yeah. And it’s I mean not to be a cliche but it’s it sounds like a classic golden handcuffs, right? Like and even I felt at my last job if there hadn’t been an ownership and a management shift. Yeah. I probably would have been there five 10 more years. Well, what are you going to do? I didn’t want to switch jobs, right? A new starting a new job, a new thing. No, it just it was awful. And I was just in a I was in a such a rut. But, you know, when you’re making good money, it’s like hard to complain, right? And it’s like people, you know, you’re it’s like really you’re you’re living in Toronto and you’re making a good salary, but I was just, you know, I was unhealthy mentally and physically. And I just knew. And so this just like literally I made it on like a second decision. It was like boom, I’m doing it. And and now you’re an entrepreneur, which is even more I mean, if you’re risk averse, you don’t want to be an entrepreneur. If you’re riskaverse, you probably shouldn’t move to Vietnam either. Yeah. Yeah. It’s Yeah, for sure. So let’s Well, okay. Let’s talk about not the landing in Phuket, but the landing here or was it in Saigon? Where do you land first? So, I literally sold everything I had, which is not a lot cuz I was living in onebedroom. Um, I remember telling my mom, “Yeah, you know, so what are you going to do?” She said, “I got to move to Vietnam.” She laughed cuz she thought I was joking. And then it’s like, oh my god, you’re serious. With two big suitcases, land in Saigon. And you know, as soon as you get you’re looking back on it, it’s freaking crazy that you just do it because you just don’t like you don’t you don’t think of all the the craziness and like Saigon going from one terminal to another and I’m you know I’m a big guy but I was like a much bigger guy like add another 70 lbs and so I’m like it’s sweating u you know going and you know then finally getting to uh you know getting to Daang and I had set up previously cuz I watched you know I absorbed so many YouTube videos. Mhm. That, you know, that’s the great thing about YouTube, man. I mean, you can really learn a learn a lot. And I’d set up um an appointment with a real estate agent to find uh to find a place to live. CRV or something. CRV. Yeah. I mean, and they 10 15 years, right? Yeah. Well, I think the guy’s Polish or who set it up. But my realtor, Hang, she’s a good friend. She married now. Um, she shows up with a boyfriend and I just stayed, you know, one of one of the hotels down here with all my stuff and then, you know, D, she takes me around to like four different places to to find a place to live. I, you know, I stayed at a hotel for 4 days and then uh rented a spot and boom, that’s it, I’m here. I love it cuz I think that that’s the best way to be successful is to commit, right? And even though it’s scary to sell all your stuff, to sort of get the one-way ticket and to not have the plan B, to not have the exit strategy, the flip side is when you leave that stuff in place, it’s easy to go out. It’s easier to turn tail and run, right? So, yeah, but it’s but looking back on it’s like, oh man, like what were you thinking? Like what’s all the visa stuff and everything? That’s what my next question was. Tell me about the visa stuff and what like I like I knew you had to do, you know, at that point three-month visas, right? And it doesn’t seem that, you know, you built that into your budget and uh it didn’t seem that big of a deal through Lin Visa. Oh, through Lin Visa. Yeah. So, the license, it’s like, you know, there’s 200 V 17-year-old Vietnamese kids watching you seeing this big fat white guy on a helmet. I paid I’ve once paid off a cop in six years. Best 200k I ever spent. The main main thing was like for insurance. That’s the the main thing. But the actual the the license it’s like uh you know uh drive a little No. What is it? What’s the um emergency? You know what’s the what’s the game where you like tried to Oh, like Frogger or something? No, no, no. The the medical one where that one it was that if if you hit the line it goes and there’s a big uh uh there’s a camera on you and there’s a speaker. So it’s like it’s totally not good. So I failed twice. Anyway, it literally it’s like I was in high school, man. I had to I had to psych myself up like three times. I’m going to do this. Anyway, I passed it. It’s fine. And now, but you know, looking back on Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal cuz it’s never nothing’s guaranteed, right? But but yeah, it was fine. I ended up only doing one visa run because of what happened in 2020, which was co. So, I only did one visa run to Bangkok and uh that was it. I mean, if there’s a time to turn tail and run, it’s Well, I hadn’t I hadn’t been home to visit my my mom and dad. My dad was still alive at the time in, you know, for a year cuz I usually go home once a year from Toronto, right? So, my plan was, okay, go to Vietnam and then um when um you know, when I’m there and settled, then I’ll make a trip back and visit mom and dad. I remember talking to my mom in February and I was ready to buy a flight and I said maybe, you know, because that’s right around February is when things are going on. I remember saying I’m just going to wait a couple weeks cuz it’s probably nothing. Yeah. I I remember saying that and then March and then it was like, well, what do I do? So, there’s no, you know, everything’s shutting down, so I might as well just stay stay where where where I was set up. had you because otherwise I had to go move with my mom because I had no place to go other than Yeah, because you committed to the first and she’s like at that point 79 so no. So what are you doing through co like what’s the experience of it like but also like just you know your daily life in Vietnam I was living up in Santron a new place and by myself and the whole point the whole point for me to come to Vietnam or anywhere was just to take a time out and get my [ __ ] together right I wanted to lose weight I wanted to get my mental health together and decide what I wanted to do next with my life so when the shutdown happened it was like oh this is great you know I don’t want to minimize the course what happened. But for me it was like h I can’t you know let’s just chill out. Now the first 2 3 months all I did was drink and smoke and eat and I gained another 30 40 lbs. Went on a keto diet which I’d done before and she kind of got motivated and anyways that that for some reason that motivated me to get back on track and then I just started losing weight and quit smoking and all that kind of stuff. I’m not an extrovert. You know, I used to be in radio and stuff, but I’m not an extrovert, so I was happy just being by myself and just figuring out what I wanted to do. I had a couple friends already because what the second day I was here, um, I had rented a scooter and I got pulled over by the cops and you know, they cuz they set up these traps on the oneway street and so that freaked me out right away. So I the first thing I did was to try and get my motorcycle license. So I met some expats there and in fact the guy I met Robbie is a a partner in Scalowwags. So that automatically got me some friends right away. He’s South African. So I had a group of friends that I would hang out with with them and and cuz he he set up a restaurant already. Um and he had a whole group. A lot of South Africans are here. So I would hang out with them and then just do my thing. And that’s basically what I did. and and uh you know started working out and and I didn’t I didn’t do a lot. I mean you know it’s you got a nice beach here and and you know like you say nice cafes and some friends and it was just getting into cuz I just like a routine and uh learning what I wanted to do next and that at that point I was starting to think about I was going to be like a YouTuber. Um so I was starting to research that and buying equipment cuz my past is in radio as well. So I was doing just doing a lot of that and that was my my day-to-day for a few at least a few months. So the first year of co here was was pretty tame. I mean they close the country and you can go anywhere was fine. But during COVID, I started experience vision problems and um it eventually what was turning out to be a detached retina. Mhm. And it was really serious cuz you could lose your vision and and at that time I was by myself and it was a nightmare. It really was. I went to a hospital here and then another hospital here and they said they couldn’t treat me so I had to go to Saigon. This is all by myself. So I went to Saigon by myself. Um, the decisions I made were wrong because I was trying I don’t know why I had health insurance was trying to go through the the hospital system cuz it was cheaper the the Vietn Yeah. The public system. Anyway, it was a nightmare. Yeah. When I went to the the the first hospital, they actually hooked me up with an intern who is from Hu and she led me around for a couple days. But it was just a it was it was brutal cuz I was like way bigger than I am now. They didn’t want to treat me. I had to go to all these other facilities. And it was during co too. It was during CO and it was all these other facilities to see whether I could even have the surgery. All Vietnamese hospitals. And it it was like it was crazy. I mean, you know, you want to appreciate what you have in Canada, the US for hospital, come to a a Vietnamese government hospital. You know, they got good good quality people running it, but the facilities are Anyway, no, it’s scary, man. That’s important for people to know. It’s they had no soap in the washroom. It’s intense. It’s overcrowded, right? So, eventually you get the surgery. So, all all that said, eventually I went to cuz I had insurance. Um, I went to FV hospital and it is as good as any hospital you can go to. Like, yeah, it’s good. And I went to a couple hospitals in Toronto and it was freaking awesome. I have my knee surgery at FE. It’s I highly recommend word of mouth recommend to anyone anywhere. Mine would have been I was covered, but it would have been $22,000 to get your insurance. But all that said, that’s where I went my I met my wife. So when I first went there, I went uh of course I had to go to a bar. I went to a hotel in District 1 and then just randomly walked around on um Pastur Street and went to Bricks and there she was. There you go. And like I wasn’t looking for it. She wasn’t looking for it and we just clicked and it was great. How did your life change? Not just like obviously being in love and having romance and having a partner, but having, you know, being a partner with a Vietnamese local. How did that change your experience in Vietnam? Uh, like a night and day. I mean, you know, so many of the the the problems that you would have not being a Vietnamese speaker go away cuz she can help you do that. Yeah. and she’s h, you know, she’s h happy to do that. And just just the logistics is is easier. And just the integration into the Vietnamese culture is is is great. I mean, it’s fabulous. I mean, you know, whenever you meet somebody that you eventually married and you’re compatible, it’s obviously a great thing. And um, you know, during co so she was living in Ho Chi Min City and you know, that first year like you know, it was fine, but then then things start to hit. You know, I had to go back and forth a few times for for the high thing and then um she came to visit me in Daang and then things started to hit in Ho Chi Min. Remember they’re closing things down. Hey, we went north. Yeah. Yeah. So I said, “Hey, come to Daang.” And so we ended up living together right away for like 6 months. And so that’s a good test of whether you’re compatible because once you know once the lockdown happened, it happened in Dang and then we’re living together and so it’s like you know you know is it going to work or not and it it did it was it was great. So talk about a little bit about the cash money. So once you’re moving in together, did you move out of your sort of bachelor pad to a different place? What what I actually what’s like your rent, your grocery, you know, like the real nuts and bolts type deal. I had because of co all the prices went down. Mhm. Like dramatically. So like I moved from the place I was at into a two-bedroom for the same price in Santra Ocean View, which is great great spot. 10 million about $400. Yeah, there’s the same rant for a small one bed, a small studio, going from a studio to a twobedroom for a lot of people are, you know, quote unquote complaining about in certain pockets of Daang prices are now going up, but I think a lot of them are just going back to pre-COVID levels. Absolutely. Things got so bad here for a while. Oh, they got like Yeah. Like literally cut in half. Yeah. So, and also it’s like if you want to live in Anthong here, it’s going to be expensive. It’s like the tourist area, but you want to drive 5 10 minutes, prices go down. Yeah. And we almost we both live in Son Cha. We both live up in the Son Chaffen in it’s I have a three-bedroom twob house, three stories for $520. Yeah. And we’re going to move now from that twobedroom in the same building to a threebedroom for it’s going to be it’s going to be $15 million. So, you know, it’s $600 and and it’s a the the building was built in 2019. It’s got infinity pool. Your rent’s $400 US. What’s sort of your the rest of your budget? Your incidentals, your health insurance. So the second for right now I’m spending about 3,000 a month. Okay. Canadian. 3,000 Canadian. So that’s 57 dong which is 2,000 about 2,200 $2,300. That’s not budget anything. No. No. like uh and I’m actually spending less now because I don’t you know I would go to Moon Milk and buy a lot of meat and stuff and I just I do different shopping now because I know where different things is. The main thing you’re going to spend more on is sort of higher quality food and things like vitamin like you know the things you’re going to spend like I I buy fish oil Carlson’s fish oil it’s really freaking expensive but you know I’ll I’ll buy that and vitamins and and I’m willing to pay that because everything else is so inexpensive. So, you you’re going to spend more money to buy um sort of I don’t want to say western quality, but you know what I mean. I mean, you can go to the you can go to the market and and buy the meat that they chop up, but I you know, I just don’t want to do that. Uh so, other than that, it’s um health insurance, which is like a couple hundred bucks a month. Um I spend like it’s for my it’s 4,000 Canadian. So, it’s anyway 4,000 Canadian about 3,000 US. Yeah. So $3,000 a year is Yeah. Under under $200 US. Yeah. And that’s topnotch. It has a,000 deductible. So it’s not for like going for checkups and stuff, which they’ll just pay out of pocket. Um the other thing which was surprisingly, you know, expensive was electricity, which is I’m paying the same for electricity that I did in Toronto, but still that’s like a 100 bucks a month on air conditioning. Yeah. Yeah. three air conditioners like and one on all the time which you know I I want under $40 in the rainy season. Exactly. And then like hot season can be 150 bucks if it really just the way it is. I mean I want to be comfortable. So, um the other thing is like transit. Um I bought a scooter. Mhm. Bought a good scooter. So that’s minimal cuz I mean gas is like I don’t know five bucks a month but that’s you know I don’t know that’s about it I think other than you know travel and all that kind of stuff. That’s why I moved just just just not talking about interest time out because I knew if I stayed in Toronto or even anywhere in Canada I was just going to burn through it. I wasn’t I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know. I didn’t want to go look for a job. Like I just was I needed a I needed time. Yeah. So that’s why I I dropped everything. I The plan was never to live here forever, you know? But then you come here and it’s like this is pretty good. You get married. It’s like, “Yeah, all right. I’m living forever.” Yeah. No problem. Okay. Let’s talk about Scally Wags tomorrow. Literally, this video is going live on Sunday, September 7th, 2025. We’re also doing an event for the entire NFL season this year here at Scallywags. Whoop. Every Monday morning, we’re going to do a fantasy pick and pool. Uh we’re going to set up maybe weekly fantasy, daily fantasy, guillotine leagues, and we’re going to watch Sunday night football live every single week for the entire NFL season at Scallywags in Anong Daang. 15% off everybody comes from when the game starts 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. until noon every Monday from September to January. So to celebrate that a big cheers, let’s hear the story of Scallwags. How do you go from, you know, showing up here on a tourist visa, looking for a break for a few months to owning and operating a business, having multiple Vietnamese employees? Kai and I meet and get together and get married and or know we’re going to get married and so then I got to figure out okay I guess I got to do something, you know, I got to do something and it was not really about you know I got to I got to make money because I had some money saved but I wanted to not spend my savings, right? So I wanted to have something that would basically pay my way here. My buddy Robbie, like I said, he um runs the bri pit. He’s got a lot of food and beverage experience. He already opened a restaurant. Kai had 10 years restaurant experience in Saigon. Um, and I’d been to a lot of bars. I’d been to a lot of bars. No, but you know, I seriously is the business experience really makes a difference. I mean, being in sales is such a great asset. You know, just knowing what profit and loss is and and all that and running budgets and all that. So, I had a good business and marketing. I did a lot of marketing. So, um, that really trifecta of all of us come together and said it might be a good idea to open. I really kind of mulling the idea of opening a bar for a little bit and then when you know push came to shove after uh, you know, co was over got to do something. Okay, let’s start let’s start doing it. We just started looking for a location first off and uh, took a little while started driving around and and uh, we we just found this place. Now at that time co co just decimated this area right so many businesses left so many expats left so there’s a lot of opportunity so looking back on it was a great time to start even though it took a while to build up but we we this place used to be called Simple Man 2 it was a dive bar he also had Simple Man which was a rock and roll venue place so he was like and he had all these people who kept things over co were bleeding money right so he wanted to get out of it yeah we just started. Okay, let’s start figuring out now. It was a whole, you know, it was a whole process. You know, the type of business that that we started was going to was an LLC, which is way more complicated. Um, we eventually switched to household business, but different story. Um, so we got lawyers um just to negotiate the sale from him cuz you’re basically you’re basically buying him to get out of here. You’re not really We didn’t really buy any assets. Yeah. It was just for him to leave, right? Um, so we did that and then um and then just started building out this place and that was a whole process in itself. I mean, you know, we didn’t really know what we were doing. How did you find, you know, contractors, local help? So, Robbie knew that because he had built briit already. Okay. So, he had a guy called Sparky who who did it all and it was great and he did everything. So, that was already tak obviously a big part of it. How long start to finish from when you find the location, you pay the fee to take over the space and the lease? How long for the buildout to the open doors? So, I think we got the lease figured out in uh finally in September. There’s a lot of back and forth. Uh we got a good lawyer involved. Get a lawyer. It’s really important. And then uh we opened November. We opened in time for World Cup. And then we opened and uh learned how to run a bar. It was like learning how to run a business, learning how to run employees. So the first the first year or two was pretty stressful. Not not Canada stressful but stressful because I didn’t know what you know we didn’t know what we’re doing. But the great thing about opening a place like this is that the overhead’s not much. So the whole cost of you know failure is not huge. Like it was never going to be a point where if it didn’t work I was done. And that’s important, you know, and you have to have two years of runway. And that’s because of Vietnam. That’s because of Vietnam. This place would have been, I don’t know, 500 grand, 600 grand, min who knows to open up and get, let alone the licensing and all that. Like ballpark, what did the three of you have to put in to open it here to start? Uh, 60 grand Canadian, 45,000 US or something like that. Yeah. Minimal. And that’s between me and and Robbie essentially. I was 2/3. And then you know and then you add in another 10 grand every year for a couple years until and then we started finally making money this year. How has it been language barrier wise to hire people to work with people and just to become you know like intertwined with the local economy? Yeah, it’s different because there’s a lot of businesses like me around here. A lot of same situation. So everybody here is typically it’s um a household business. So, it’s a Vietnamese ownership and in this case, it’s my wife and that’s just the that’s just the easiest way to work. We had the LLC, but it was just far more complex, far more ownorous with taxes and stuff. Um, so to answer your question, Kai and the and and Min and the staff, they kind of deal with the Vietnamese aspect and the the running the bar aspect. My job really is to run the business aspect and to do the marketing which is a huge asset here because not a lot of people do that. So to have because you know our customers are 80% Australian. They’re 100% westerners but 80% Australian. So it’s all western oriented marketing which you know which I do. And that’s a that’s a key advantage I think that we have. So I do that part. I spend two or three hours every morning doing that. I don’t come to the bar too much because it’s really run by Kai and and Min and the staff. I’m surprised to hear you saying that 80% of your clients are still Australian. Even before Koreans, before mainland Chinese surprising cuz in the whole the whole the whole scheme of tourism, it’s really really small. Australian is really small compared to Korean million people or something. But you know, this is the area for it too. And I and Australia being close and you know it’s not just Australian, it’s British, it’s Canadian, it’s US, but it’s mainly Australian. It’s Daang as well because it’s a great tourist spot. Um, it’s obviously easy to get to and now we’re getting repeat customers. I mean, and once I, you know, realize it was Australians, you just start focusing on that and the and in terms of sports, the timing is perfect. That’s right. Because it’s AFL and NRL. It’s all during the afternoon. Yeah. I mean, it’s then there’s Premier League and and uh on the weekends. A little bit late night, but and F1 in and in in the evenings. Um like we close at 12:00 so if things are after that I just don’t show it. You go to other places UFC in the morning so it works out pretty good. I was coming here watching the NBA finals in June and that’s what gave me the idea to come and do a do a Monday morning that was like we weren’t opening and that it’s like oh maybe we should open for the finals. So talk about how marrying a Vietnamese woman, living longterm in Vietnam, owning a small business in Vietnam, how has it changed as a person? like most of us who come here, you do want to change. Listen, you see a lot of people that come here and they don’t have any direction, especially in the expat world, you know, they they have a pension, they have money, and but they have no direction and they’re in the bar here at 11:00 and that’s their that’s that’s their job. So, that is a problem because, you know, I use stories all the time. People, oh, he’s dead. He’s dead. I mean, it happens, man. You know, but I’m I’m sure it happens everywhere, but just because it’s a smaller community, you see it. Mhm. So, you know, you have to have a you need a uh you need a focus of some sort, whether it’s exercise or walking or or hobbies or something. But I guess that’s anybody retired. But in terms of me, um I mean it’s like 100% man. I mean, I I never thought I was going to be married. Never thought I was going to open a business. It’s just been great. It’s just been great. You know, it’s been it’s been, you know, like life is tough, right? and opening a business is tough and marriage is tough and getting married and opening business same time is tough but my mom and dad did that. So that would give me a kind of a anchor to show that it’s not like crazy to do that. But you know, you it’s just like anything else. You got to you got to work at it. But it’s been so rewarding, you know, and living in this area is just beautiful. It’s just nice. It’s just nice. I drove out here for to have a coffee this morning with someone. So I like you. I live up in Son Chad. So I drove out here for coffee at 9:00 a.m. Saw the beautiful vista of the beach in the morning. drove home, hung out in the day, came drove back out in the afternoon, saw the beautiful vista again in different light, and it’s like it’s not that that is a view that is never going to get old. No. And but I can’t I remember telling myself like, dude, don’t for like when I’m all stressed out driving, it’s like, dude, just slow down. Look at the freaking ocean that you don’t didn’t have for 30 years. So, no, it’s been it’s been fabulous. I mean, just like anything else, like in terms of a relationship, you have to you have to find the right person. And just like anywhere else, a lot of that doesn’t happen. What are the biggest misconceptions, the biggest sort of, you know, [ __ ] that people think about Vietnam before they get their feet on the ground? My biggest thing was just the view of what Vietnam was like, you know, growing up, you know, something happening, you know, it’s like, you know, Vietnam war like era type stuff. I mean, it’s a developed country. It’s growing. It it’s an advanced country. I guess that was the big the biggest thing, especially Daang. is like it was perfect for me because I didn’t want to go to a Saigon or a Hanoi or a Bangkok just I didn’t you know I didn’t want to have that craziness so Daang for me was perfect. Where do you think Daang’s going to be in 5 years, in 10 years? Unlike Toronto, which might look almost exactly the way it looks now, 10 years from now. I know that you and I both know Daang’s not going to Yeah. No, it’s growth is going to be exponentially, right? Yeah. It’s it’s huge. More developments. I mean, you see it all the time. More like when we first came when I first came here, it was there was a lot of development, but then it stopped because of COVID. Like a lot of empty shells and there’s there was a real estate bubble. Um, but it’s just all picked up again. Like all the ones that are they’re all being built and there’s just new pl I mean it’s it’s like, you know, if you were in Vancouver before Expo 86, same thing, man. All all that empty land is going to be big big development. Now, that’s a good thing and a bad thing, but um there’s a lot of opportunity here. Like if you can come if you want to come here and open a business, dude, it doesn’t have to be it can be tiny. I mean, this is not a huge place, right? It’s not a huge overhead and you don’t have to go in, oh, I need a million. You can go in with 25 grand and and you can open a place. When we were coming up here in 2122 and it was places were literally boarded up on Antung 1, Anton 2, we were seeing small business owners, Viet business owners trying to get out of leases on hotels. I’m not talking about a hostel. I’m talking hotels. Yeah. 70 room, 80 room things. I mean you you know cuz we talked before my my wife is in corporate marketing. They were like lease takeovers 75 million a month 90 million which for anyone listening is3 to $4,000 for a hotel. a hotel and we knew like we were totally got like okay you know the risk is you’d have to carry this at a loss for a couple years just like you say right and it’s like okay do you want to invest you know maybe lose $50,000 but the flip side is once it’s running 100 room hotel is a serious profitable business in a place like this and we we’d both seen Dang precoid right we we knew what it could be and what it would be well even me I When we started this place, like I had no idea, right? I had no, you know, you oh, you got to do a business plan. It’s like how you going to do a business plan here? It’s like not like Canada. It’s like so we you just go in and you do it and it and through 23 and then even 24. It’s like you’re thinking, well, how can I make any money? Not that I was losing money, but it’s like I wasn’t making a lot of money. You know, some months you were and some months you weren’t. And then suddenly this year it’s like kaboom. It’s like, ah, that’s how it’s supposed to be when you find a market fit. Absolutely. Most people still don’t get and you know, because I’ i’ve had to go back and like look at look all this data up and do actual research cuz people [ __ ] on me so much in my comments. You know, North Americans are something like 3% of the tourist market here. You know, that doesn’t include Australians. But say if that grows in the next 10 years from 3% to 10%. Just the tiny Australian market is running our business and it’s grown 100% year-over-year for 2 years. And we’re getting repeat customers. We’re getting groups. If you run a good business, you’re going to do well. That’s right. But you got to run. But if you don’t, it won’t. And I see it all the time. People open, but they don’t know what the [ __ ] they’re doing. Like they don’t have a plan. They don’t run a good bit. You know, you can’t just run here and open the lights and expect it to run. It’s not going to work. You got to put the work in, right? But just that’s like anywhere. That’s just like anywhere. So now once it’s running though, now I’m working 3 hours a day. You know, I don’t need to be here. I mean, it’s perfect. What were some of the biggest, you know, the roadblocks, the the sort of hill you had to cut, you didn’t expect to run into it and you had to come over. What were some of those biggest learning moments for you? Just running a business. Yeah. You know, how much time do I got to put in? What do I got to do? What do I not do? How much do I should I do this? Should I do that? I was pretty stressed the first year. Both of us were. because you know you think you know what you’re doing but then you then you realize you don’t but again if if there’s not a huge risk involved then it’s not as stressful and then you just learn and then you know and then we put you know once we start making money put start more money into this place built a patio got more TVs you know I focused on what I was good at which was figuring all the TVs and the feeds and all that kind of stuff was during the hiring once you get a good manager we got men who’s a good manager that you know Employees are huge and and that runs your business. So, you know, you know, finding good employees and treating them well and paying them well. You know, we took them on a trip to Huay this year, closed the business for two two days and, you know, a couple of guys never been in a bathtub before. We went to a nice hotel, you know. So, it’s just stuff like that, which is great. The value you bring to customers lives, to employees life, to to each other’s life that that that that’s something I never expected. Ex. I just wanted to make some a little bit of money, right? A little bit of scratch. And then you realize, oh well, I’m actually building something here. And now I’m look at Scallwags. And you know, the name Scallywags was a bar in in Toronto. What I came up with the name I was like, what am I going to come up with a name? Yeah. Yeah. So right across from CFRB. That’s hilarious. I’m 100% sure I’ve been to that bar. I used to work at Terrone at Young and Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I’ve been to Tron. I used to I was the bartender at I mean this is 20 years ago. Wow. I was the bartender at 20 years ago. That’s at Young and Rosedale like 20 200 six and we’re trying to think of the name call it bigs or bigies and then [ __ ] man scallwags. Two guys from Toronto end up in Daang Vietnam. That’s great man. Who who would have thought it? Who would have expected it? Before we started recording, we bumped into we’re talking to, you know, one of my members, a guy who watches all these videos, Steve. Awesome guy. I’m so glad you met him and I got to meet him. If you have like one, you know, piece of advice, one tip, you know, nothing too simple, nothing too basic for a guy like Steve who’s doing it right. He’s he’s about to do right now. He’s already made a decision. He’s right now he’s on a scouting trip. He’s I’ll tell director service. He’s on a scouting trip. He’s engaged to a beautiful Vietnamese woman. He’s changing his life. He’s leaving his job. He’s coming over here. He’s moving to Vietnam. He’s like doing the whole move to Vietnam thing. What’s that sort of like one piece of advice for a guy like Steve literally or anyone else in the same situation as him who’s who’s, you know, on the precipice of coming over here? Well, if you’re on the precipice, do it. Don’t look back. Just do it, man. Move forward because, you know, you never know. like I never was going to thought I was going to get married or open a business and now my life is just fabulous. I mean it’s great. Um but the real p you know other than that it’s have a plan for what you think you’re going to do when you’re here some hobbies or exercise or you know or internet research you know I don’t know game you know something but have something so you’re just not mindless but yeah that’s pretty much like anybody tires. Yeah. And it’s, you know what, it can honestly is going to sound silly, but it’s just something that popped in my head cuz it’s so darn popular right now. I mean, that can literally be playing pickle ball, right? Absolutely. Pickle ball is going nuts in the day or walking in the morning or jogging or we’re learning to swim in the ocean or there’s an iron man race here. But I agree you’re saying right it doesn’t it doesn’t have to be starting a business like a YouTube thing or or a brick and mortar business like a bar thing. But it you are going to do better health, social, everything if you pick up a pickle ball or you there’s a lot of groups like jogging. We’ve got a rugby team the name rugby team for sure. They come here and the cycling you get a whole group already built in. Um I go box I have a boxing group. I mean but it’s I think that’s not Vietnam that’s anywhere if you retire from your job like a lot of people are like so just have a make have a plan. For anyone watching back home I do have a move to Vietnam course. It’s basically the eight simple questions people answer me. All the frequently answered questions about housing, banking, visas, dating. It’s basically the stuff that I get in emails non-stop and like can’t answer direct oneonone cuz I don’t have the time to. That’s going to be linked below along with all of the info for the scallywags meetups that we’re going to be hosting every single Monday morning at least for this NFL season. We’re hoping it goes well and it’s you guys are still watching. There’s a video over my shoulder here about what my life in Vietnam is like. And there’s one over my right shoulder here about all the different other places you can retire or live in Southeast Asia.

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In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with @evan_eh and Trevor from Scallywags Bar and Grill in Da Nang Vietnam. We compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown and discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam.

If you’re in Da Nang, Say Hi to Trevor at https://www.scallywagsvietnam.com/
https://www.facebook.com/scallywagsbarandgrill

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WATCH MORE VIDEOS:
He Left Canada to Retire Early at 50 in Vietnam! (RECAP) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPXgPqSrOv8
Full interview ⁨https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HHgKElqlpM
My fave spots in Vietnam https://youtu.be/_kOAKXNDBUQ
Life in Vietnam on $500 https://youtu.be/R4G73dVNAug
SCAMS in Vietnam https://youtu.be/CIQFy93qWUk

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