# life of indie hacker in vietnam

> what indie hacker life actually looks like in vietnam. one month in da nang, a broken drone, and the month scrolllaunch finally clicked.
- **Author**: kalash vasaniya
- **Published**: 2026-09-20
- **Category**: personal
- **URL**: https://www.kalashvasaniya.com/blog/life-of-indie-hacker-in-vietnam

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ok so here is the journey.

one month long. 1 july to 29 july. almost a full month. i tried my best to cover everything you need to know.

this is what indie hacker life actually looks like. just us, a laptop, and vietnam.

1 july. i had a flight to catch.

ho chi minh first. then another flight to da nang.

two flights in a row and my brain was already gone. but i was smiling the whole time. like this is actually happening.

on 2 july we finally landed in da nang. finally. the solo founder best place.

i do not know how to explain that feeling. you land, the air is different, the streets are already moving, and something in you goes "yes. this is it."

i was already buzzing. idk why but i was crazy excited to buy a dji drone. it is 60% cheaper here than back in india. like actually 60%. i was not going to miss that.

bought it. felt rich for no reason.

ps: this mf [ashrith](https://x.com/sathuashrith) broke my drone on the 2nd day. not even a joke. and it took 3 weeks to get it repaired. 3 weeks. i was so mad. but we will come back to that.

anyway. finally i was about to meet all my twitter friends from india. in da nang. in vietnam. lol.

think about that for a second. people you only know from tweets. from replies. from "we should meet someday." and someday is a dinner table in da nang.

we had a crazy local dinner. first night energy. everyone talking at the same time. food i cannot even name properly. i did not care. i was just happy.

da nang is so cool. like actually cool. i was looking for coworking cafes and accidentally found this one called lighthouse.

high ceiling. laptops everywhere. people building stuff. that quiet cafe noise that makes you want to open cursor. lol.

i met so many crazy people there. da nang is pure vibe. i do not have the words. i love lighthouse so much we all went like 10+ times in a month. it became our "where are you" default.

if someone said "cafe", it meant lighthouse.

everything in da nang is beautiful. specially the people. they are soooo kind. so generous. sooo helping. that is what makes vietnam even better.

the streets are fun too. so much happening. bikes, lights, random shops, random music. you just walk and the city keeps giving.

working with friends hits different. you are not grinding alone in a room. you look up and someone else is also shipping.

we went to full market. it is 24/7. we used to go at 4-5am and sit outside. talk. eat something random. watch the city wake up.

that is the best feeling tbh.

4am outside a 24/7 market with your people. if you know, you know.

we also did insane electronics shopping. spent 15 million just for fun. fifteen million. for fun. vietnam prices make your brain do stupid things.

our schedule was simple.

work till 6-7 in the morning.

sleep.

wake up.

go to a different cafe.

work after 5-6pm.

then enjoy.

that is the life i want to live forever.

i did not work a lot. just 4-5 hours a day. somehow i still made the highest amount. that part still messes with my head.

back home i can sit 10 hours and feel stuck. here i sat 4 hours and things moved. maybe it is the air. maybe it is the friends. maybe it is just being happy. idk. but it worked.

i believe in this quote.

"travel can change your life"

somehow my startup [scrolllaunch](https://www.scrolllaunch.com/) finally boom.

like actually boom. a sale every other day. non-stop for a month. i used to dream of this day. i used to tweet about this day. i used to sit in india and think "one day it will click."

it clicked in da nang.

travel changes everything. i do not say that as a caption. i mean it. you change the room, you change the brain, and the work follows.

the beaches are insane. like insaneee. i have seen beaches. this is different. sunset hits and you just stand there like an idiot.

we travel daily. we just have to grab our laptop. haha. that is the whole bag. laptop, charger, maybe a hoodie. go.

this is the gang.

all we do is travel, shopping, fun and code. that is the loop. that is indie hacker life when you stop waiting for permission.

random streets have 5 star cafes. that is the craziest thing i like about da nang. you turn a corner and boom, a cafe that looks like it should be in a magazine. and the coffee is still cheap. and the wifi works. and nobody is rushing you.

and yes, even though i love our villa too. it has a swimming pool so... you already know.

come back from a cafe, jump in the pool, open the laptop again. that should be illegal.

i shot an insane amount of content. insaneee. around 55gb+ just for that 1 month. photos, videos, random clips, everything. my storage was crying.

ps: youtube video on this coming soon. i have too much footage to not make it.

haha. this is me in lighthouse again. of course it is. we lived there.

not important, but this is the best burger i ever had. bikini bottom. we went there like 5-6 times. i am not even a burger guy like that. this one ruined me.

and there is an indian restaurant too called mazzi. that is also too good. when you miss home food after 10 days, mazzi saves you. we went more than once. no shame.

i highly recommend you take a massage in vietnam. it is soooo peaceeee. like your brain actually shuts up for one hour. take 1 per week. i am serious. do not skip this.

tea. quiet room. no laptop. that hour is part of the work too. i learned that here.

we realised it had been 10 days and we had never seen any famous da nang destination. 10 days. we were too busy living. so we finally went to marble mountains. too good.

here is the gang.

[amrit](https://x.com/amritwt), [mohit](https://x.com/hii_mohit), [suraj](https://x.com/notsurajgaud) and me.

one of the crazy days we were on our way back home and saw a vietnamese movie in the theater. thai subtitles. we had no idea what was going on. so we sneaked in.

bro. what outdated films we watched. but it was crazy fun.

and it was not only cafes and code. we did a chess tournament. played football. pickleball. went to an escape room. like it is endless fun tbh. every day someone would say "should we..." and the answer was always yes.

btw go kart is goated. i do not want to hear anything else.

also did parasailing. me in the sky. da nang under me.

let me tell you how random vietnam is. it is 6am in the morning and people are dancing. all together. on the street. like this is normal. like this is just tuesday.

6am. dancing. after that you cannot tell me this country is not different.

and finally we went to the most goated place. ba na hills.

i have no words for this place. i actually do not. it is a different kind of universe. rides. golden bridge. fog. sun. people from everywhere. it does not feel real.

this is me on fuji 35mm.

i do not want to say more. these clips from ba na hills are enough. just watch.

and the second one.

and [ashrith](https://x.com/sathuashrith) clicked these goated photos. after breaking my drone he had to do something useful. i am kidding. kind of.

we also went to hoi an for a day. super fun. must visit. boats, hats, river, the whole thing. and one of the cheapest days too. cheap and beautiful. vietnam keeps doing that.

and and and finally my drone arrived after 3 weeks.

i was counting the days. i am not even lying. the second it came back we had to test it.

so we went to the beach at 4am. 4am. look what i got. oh man.

worth the wait.

we also went for local shopping. then dragon bridge at night. the whole city comes out for that thing.

in case you guys do not know, i am a huge fan of escape rooms. huge. so of course we went.

and in da nang the rooms mostly have jump scares. we were not ready. we got the craziest video of all time. i still laugh when i watch it.

then it was my birthday on 26 july. in vietnam. with these people. that still feels crazy to type.

on 27 we left for ho chi minh. it is good. but it is proper city vibes. that is not my favorite. da nang feels like life. ho chi minh feels like a city. you feel the difference in 10 minutes.

but as i said, vietnamese people are soooo friendly. even in a big city. shopping, walking, asking for help, they just smile and sort you out.

and ho chi minh is still fun. their cafe culture is goated. i am not exaggerating. i have 800+ photos in one day from just 2 cafes. two. 800+. jaw dropping tbh. like wtf. every corner looks unreal.

we did a city ride. walk. stayed in a hostel. totally fun.

and finally the reason i came to vietnam for. this cafe. this fkn cafe. i had it in my head before the trip. i needed to see it in real life.

and with that our trip is over.

insane.

one month. da nang. hoi an. ho chi minh. friends i used to only know online. a drone that died and came back. sales every other day. 55gb of content. a birthday by the sea.

all i wanna say is this.

2025 kalash dreamed about this.

2026 did it.

wait. shit. i forgot something super important.

one mf told us to do skydiving in spain. not "let us think". spain. skydiving.

so in the next 10 minutes we accidentally booked the flight to spain.

10 minutes.

this is me in shock with this mf [med](https://x.com/medhansh). his idea. look at his face. he is happy. i am not.

vietnam was the month.

spain is the next problem.
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