Nha Trang, Vietnam.... Again

Just went for a long weekend in Nha Trang. This is the second time this year we have been but its very nice and not too far from Ho Chi Minh City. We booked into a nice hotel and got a free upgrade to a very nice room. I think the pictures below show how great it was. We had amazing views from the bedroom and bathroom.

Bedroom view

Bed view

Bathroom view

We also looked around the old part of town which is one of the few places where the locals have not been kicked out by property developers and still resembles old Vietnam.

We also went to a skybar on the top of our hotel which offered great views of the city.

We spent most of the time relaxing on the beach which as usual was nice and quiet.

End of Darts season

Since February I've been playing darts again every week. Sadly, its not been a very good season and unfortunately my team 'the tavern' have been relegated. Its a tough division and a big jump up from division 2. 

As you can see my personal statistics are very disappointing and I probably didn't help our bid to stay up. I've got battered most weeks and only won one match. It doesn't help that I don't practice as much as I used to. I did improve as the season went on though.

It's still really good fun and perhaps a season in Division 2 will be good for us. The new season doesn't start until late this year so lots of time to enjoy the summer and get some practice in.

My first solo home brewed beer

After being showed how to brew beer by my German friend earlier this year and being a bit nervous about going through the whole process without any help, a few weeks ago I finally brewed some beer on my own. Overall it wasn't too difficult and I remembered how to do it pretty well. I made a few errors a long the way but generally it went okay.

Yesterday we opened our first beer. The below photo shows this event.

So, how did it taste? It was okay. Not bad but not as great as the batch I had before. It's very drinkable. Also it was a bit cloudy. We may have been premature in opening it as the flavor should improve over the next few weeks and we haven't left it in the fridge for a week yet. It has a good pop sound to it and was well carbonated.

Above is the beer in the glass. I'm in the process of getting some more ingredients so I can brew another batch in the next month. Practice makes perfect as they say.

Stag Party - Vung Tau

I went to Vung Tau this past weekend on a friends stag party. Vung Tau is about 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City and a group of 16 of us went down on Saturday morning for the day and returned on Sunday. We were told to wear silly hats. I managed to get a kids pirates hat.

 

During the day a number of people played golf whilst some of us chilled out in the pool at our hotel. In the evening we went our for dinner then to the dog racing for a few hours. 

I didn't win anything but it was good fun. After this we went out into the city centre until the early hours. Which involved a large amount of drinking.

Ngon Cheesecake

Not much to report at the moment so thought I'd write something about a nice place in Ho Chi Minh City. Quite regularly after work on a Friday we travel to district one to one of our favorite Czech beer places for dinner and beer. After this we usually stop at a cafe close by called Ngon Cheesecake who specialize in, as you may have guessed from the name - cheesecake!

They make it themselves and its pretty dam good. It's always well presented and they have about 12 different flavors to choose from.

It's on a small backstreet so isn't that easy to find but when you do the road is nice and quiet. Possibly one of my favorite deserts in Vietnam and from my memory the best cheesecake I've had.

It's closed on Sundays!

Studying again.... Masters in TESOL

I finished the DELTA last October and at the time I thought this would be my last time studying however I have just applied, and been accepted to Sheffield Hallem University to do a Masters of Education in TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages).

This is going to take me up to two years to complete. Fortunately my DELTA counts towards some credits which will shorten the course. I'm hoping that it will take me about 18 months to complete.

Should I complete all the paperwork and be accepted, I will begin studying in October this year.

5 years since my first post

Just a quick post to say that today is five years since my first blog post. FIVE YEARS! It's hard to believe that I started this journey five years ago. Below is a copy of that first post.

I really didn't know what to expect when I left the UK and reflecting back I really didn't have a clue what it would be like. The 10 weeks travelling before starting the CELTA were some of the best memories I have. As you can see the initial plan of staying in Vietnam for 12 months didn't really happen. I originally thought I'd be in Brazil for the 2014 football World Cup but five years later I'm still in HCMC. But that's a good thing as I wouldn't be here if I didn't enjoy it. In the five years I've done and seen so much. I've got the CELT-YL and DELTA, I've been to Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, all over Vietnam and met great people. Also culturally, what was all really different to me when I got here is now all very normal.

Not sure what direction my blog will go in the future. My friend suggested I do this before I left the UK and I'm glad I did as I look back and I've pretty much written about everything I've done and its good to see how I've grown as time has progressed.