FA Cup final in HCMC - Arsenal vs Aston Villa

So last night was the FA Cup final and for the second consecutive year my team, Arsenal are in the final. I have a few Arsenal mates in Vietnam so we managed to co-ordinate things so we would all watch the game together. As it started at 5:30pm in the UK it meant it would start at 11:30pm Vietnam time. 

Happy Gooners in Ho Chi Minh City

We arrange to meet at a bar called O'Brien's at 8pm (Yep, an Irish themed bar) before moving onto another bar called The Orient in advance of the game. It was good because we also had a couple of Aston Villa fans with us.

As I'm sure your all aware by now it was a great result for Arsenal who won 4-0 and played some very nice football. The game was also made better by us all putting some money in a pot and predicting the first scorer. I chose Theo Walcott who didn't disappoint and scored first which netted me 550,000vnd! By the time we'd watched them get the trophy it was about 2am but that didn't stop us staying out until about 4:30am. I'm not really sure where we went after the match as the rest of a night is a bit of a blur.

A disappointed Villa fan

 

Anyway, it was a great night had by all (expect the Villa fans). I hope Arsenal keep this tradition of getting to the final up so we can do it again next year!

Four years since leaving England!

Not much to report here so will use this opportunity to mark my four year anniversary away from England!!! I know I say this every year but doesn't time go quickly?!

May 17th 2011 was the day I left on a plane from London to Bangkok to start this adventure after quitting my job in a Bank. So much good stuff has happened since then and long may it continue.

Not much else to report. Work-wise, a new semester has started, socially, I've started playing football again and study-wise I've nearly finished the Delta module 3 as the deadline is in a few weeks time.

Nha Trang, food and beer

Tomorrow we go home from Nha Trang. It's been a really nice relaxing break with a great hotel and lots of nice things to do. One final post is that we've had some great food and beer since arriving. 

Firstly the beer has been very good. There is not much of an ale scene in Vietnam which was my beverage of choice back in the UK. Fortunately that is changing. Nha Trang had two very good beer places that we visited. One was on the beach from called Louisiane Brewhouse and the other, which was in the touristy area was called beerfest. Links to their websites are below but they are definitely worth checking out if your here and into that sort of thing. The pictures below are from Louisiane Brewhouse which was a great place to go to at the end of the day. The picture above is from beerfest.

Louisiane Brewhouse in Nha Trang weblink

Beerfest in Nha Trang weblink

Also there were some pretty good bbq places around our hotel that we went to most evening. Most of them were all you can eat for $10 and the food was good. There were all sorts of meats and seafood.

 

 

 

We've had a great time in Nha Trang but its back to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow and back to work on Monday.