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.

Nha Trang Mud Baths

One of the great day trips that you can do in Nha Trang is to visit the mud baths. It's a small resort just outside the city which has mud baths and swimming pools.

Basically you can get to go in your very own mud bath for half an hour. Its very reasonably priced. We rented a motorbike for $5 dollars for the afternoon and found it very easily. The mud is hot but quite relaxing.

After this you can relax by one of the many swimming pools. They also have a couple of water slides which were ok. Again, this is something I'd recommend doing if you come to Nha Trang

Premier Havana Nha Trang - Swimming pool!

Just a quick blog to give a special mention to the pretty cool swimming pool we have at our hotel. Its one of those pools that overlooks the beach. It was very nice to chill out by and was never that busy. It also had a stream room, sauna and gym which we've been making use out of.

Premier Havana Hotel, Nha Trang

We have been staying in the premier Havana hotel whilst in Nha Trang and it's very nice. Our room is on 28th floor and we get a great view of the beach. The photos below were taken both from our room window and the swimming pool floor.

As you can see it looks pretty nice and the weather was very good to us. If anything it was too hot during the days as the temperature was in the late 30s.

The buffet breakfast has been excellent and this is definitely a hotel I would recommend if you want to stay in Nha Trang

Holiday in Nha Trang

There is a week of national holidays in Vietnam next week so my University has closed. This means I can go on holiday! Due to me doing the Delta this year which is a bit of an investment I'll be taking cheap holidays so I've decided to go to Nha Trang for the week.

Nha Trang is a nice beach town / city about 10 hours drive from Ho Chi Minh City. I went here before over two years ago but have decided to stay in a more upmarket hotel to properly relax.

I really liked Nha Trang the last time I came here as I thought the beach was one of the best in Vietnam. These photos are the ones I took on our first evening here. As you can see it is very nice.