The Burning Monk Memorial

I've lived in this city for six years now and I never realized that there was a memorial to the monk, Thich Quang Duc,who set himself on fire in 1963. There is quite a famous picture of the monk which I remember seeing when I was younger. Here is a link to more details about the event.

I've driven past it hundreds of times and never realized what it was so I stopped the other day to take photos. Its a really nice memorial on the spot of the event. As you can imagine, its very different now to the time it happened. The street is really busy but people were still going there to leave flowers.

Back to Nha Trang

Just returned form a nice break in Nha Trang. I've lost count of the times I've been here. Its an overnight bus ride from Ho Chi Minh City (or a one hour flight). The beach is great and the food is lovely.

 

It's a really great place to relax. There are some lovely restaurants along the beach and they had this great big inflatable thing in the sea. It was good fun.

 

At night we walked along the beach. There are lots of people out. I really like coming to this place and Im sure I'll be back again soon.

 

More nice skys

Not much going on so thought I'd share some pictures of some nice skies brought by the storms that I took with the camera phone. As usual, this doesn't do it justice. 

 

RMIT Teens program promotional event

Over the past few weekends I've got some extra work promoting our new English program for teenagers at my University. 

The events were held at the two shopping centers in near my house and the University. I volunteered to help out and organize games for the kids.

Me with my mate on the large TV

Student volunteers

There were lots of students helping out and competitions to win prizes by playing an online quiz called Kahoot. At one point we had 40 teams playing in the shopping centre.

The highlight for me was probably the Universities music club playing live music every few hours. They're really good (and loud).

Darts - Doubles Tournament Winners!

So more fantastic darts news! Over the past few weeks me and my doubles partner have been participating in the end of season doubles darts tournament for division three. Last night were the semi finals and the final and I'm delighted to say we won!

The finalists of the division 3 final

Last week was the group phase and we came second in the group. The finals were at a bar called Phatty's in the centre of the city. There was another round robin group and the top two teams met in the final. We got through the group and into the final and won 3-2. I checked all the legs in the final.

I can't quite believe it. Most of the teams were evenly matched and we had a bit of luck on our side, but it's a great achievement and means I've won the league and cup double this season. I'll also get another nice little trophy!

The finalists of the division 3 final

The next season starts in a few weeks and I'll be playing in division 2. I'm sure it will be much tougher, but this has been a season to remember.

When restaurants disappear in Vietnam

One of the other funny things that you find in Vietnam is that restaurants an shops change so quickly. There was this amazing little restaurant on near of the side roads near my house that did amazingly cheap vegetarian food. I used to go there a few times a week. The food was so cheap but there was never many people in it. I really worried it wouldn't be around very long. I've no idea how they covered their overheads.

Anyway, we didn't go for a few weeks then went to go again last week and this is all that was left.

Its just an empty shell. Nothing is left! The same thing happened to the place where I pay my bills a few years back. 

No idea what its going to be replaced by.

 

Darts Champions - Spring season 2017!

I did a mid season review of my darts season and at the time it was all going well and we were top of the league. I'm happy to say that the season finished yesterday and we are the champions!!!

We only one it by one point in the end but we'd won it with three games to go but lost two matches then had one team forfeit on us. 

The championship winning team

My season has gone really well. Over all I won 10 matches and only lost 4. I finished 16th overall which is a massive improvement on my miserable season last year. My highlight was beating the second best player in the division.

 

 My Individual record is below.

Our last match last night was against the second place team who needed to better the result of the third place team to get promoted. They won, but it was still a good evening and I played well. Below is a picture we took after the match.

The Tavern (1st) and Dailo's Moob (2nd) in the SIDL Division 3 Spring 2017 season

There is a doubles tournament next week. Me and my doubles partner have entered and we've played well this season (won 10, lost 3). The new season will start in a few months.