First Vietnamese football league match - HCMC F.C vs Hai Phong F.C

As the basketball season is now over I need to find another sport to keep myself occupied. My mate tole me that I should come and watch Ho Chi Minh City F.C play. They play in the Vietnamese football league which is like Vietnams answer to the premier league. The only difference is that the start is lower... A lot lower.... so low I think that I could have tryouts. Im addition, its not htat well supported. 

I went yesterday and agreed to meet a group of my friends there. I'd not been tehre before and although finding the stadium wasn't a problem, finding my mates was and I ended up going in the away supporters end, which was actually okay. It reminded me of the game I saw in Phnom Penh years ago. It kicked off at dusk and I got to sit on concrete steps in the evening sun. It was very nice.

The game itself was pretty terrible and ended 0-1 to the other team, Hai Phong, the opposition, had come all the way form near Hanoi and brought quite a few fans. They were pretty happy with there 0-1 win.

I'll probably go again as it was entertaining and nice to be in the open air. It was also very cheap, 40,000 VND which is about £1.30.

Fairy Springs revisited, Mui Ne, Vietnam

I revised the Fairy Springs in Mui Ne which I last visited about six years ago. This is basically a river that runs through sand dunes to the sea. You can walk up it and its pretty impressive.

Since my last visit, the Vietnamese are doing their best to ruin it by building lots of crap along the river. They don't seem to understand that people who like visiting natural beauty spots want them to look like natural beauty spots. However, it was still really good to see the white and red dunes.

Back to Mui Ne, Vietnam

Ive just come to the end of a 10 week semester and because we had a great time last time and because its cheap, we have gone back to Mui Ne for a few days. Sadly the other hotel we stayed in was fully booked but we still got another really nice hotel. 

 

 

The beach was very nice and as I went with my Vietnamese nephew, I got to build a sandcastle. 

 

 

 

It also had a very nice pool

 

Back to work next week for another 10 week semester. We do have a public holiday in a few weeks though.

New Motorbike

With my pending 40th birthday, and because I needed to replace my old one, I decided to buy a new motorbike. Its not 'new' but only done 6k and its 6 months old. Its a Honda 'Future'. Its got a 150 engine and is semi automatic. It's much nicer to drive that my old one. Now I have a more reliable bike I can do road trips. There are two public holiday days soon and we are planning to drive into the Mekong Delta to  place called Can Tho for a long weekend. Below are some pictures.

Saigon Heat Basketball, 2017-2018 season

The Saigon Heat basketball season is over. In the end the finished 6th in the table and qualified for the playoff but lost.

It was really good to watch them at the weekends. The games are shown on national TV. Below is some footage

Because its a small stadium, we even make it onto the TV!!!

We had great seats right by the away end. Below are some more random photos.

 

Really nice hotel in Mui Ne

For the wedding this weekend we didn't stay in the resort with the bride and groom but stayed in one down the road. There are lots of resorts in Mui Ne but we managed to get a great one I'd not stayed in before. It was called the Lotus Village.

It had a lovely pool right on the sea. The breakfast was lovely and it was so quiet.  

Our room door opened up right onto the pool, you can see this in the photo below.

Room opening onto the pool with the sea view.

 This was a great place and I'll definitely be coming back

Wedding in Mui Ne, Vietnam

This past weekend we attended a friends wedding in Mui Ne. Mui Ne is a beach resort about 4 hours form Ho Chi Minh City. There are lots of nice resorts.

The wedding was no the beach and it was a great event. It started at dusk and went on into the evening. After we went to a late night bar. 

It was a really nice, long weekend break!