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Published: December 16th 2005
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Go Vietnam GOOOOO!!!
Prior to the football match against Thailand Hey guys! 😊
So Vietnam found itself in the final of the SEA games (a competition similar to the Olympics but only for South East Asian countries) and the city was going insane with football fever. Moira and I decided to go watch the final against Thailand in a bar/cafe place by our house and mix with the locals and drink some beer, wearing Vietnam football shirts. To our shock and surprise, the first place we sat down at didn't sell beer, and when we looked around all of the guys were indeed drinking coke or orange juice. We thought that was a pretty lame excuse for fun and headed out to the next bar that sold beer. Football and beer are a match made in heaven hence the need for it was essential. Vietnam lost 3-0 and the Vietnamese cheered their team (or maybe Thailand's team) after the final whistle and left. We had been talking to these two younger guys watching the game in very broken English on their behalf ad very broken Vietnamese on ours but managed to get our names across - they were Chinh and Cong. Then we went into town and ended up having
Flagged alleyways!
Looks pretty sweet in my opinion and reminded me whenthe Euro was on at home and everyone had their Portugal flags out! a pretty uneventful night. That was on Sunday. On Monday I had the day off and went about doing some errands and at night time decided to go to the Monday Club. The Monday Club consists of Moira and I, Joe, Brian and someone who works with Joe, called Tony (who is Vietnamese but has an English name) and we meet on a Monday (shocker!) and go and eat and drink together at this nearby restaurant which is full of locals! It's called the bia hoi place to us (I'm sure it has a proper name) because they bring out a 4L pitcher of draught beer which costs 16,000 dong (less than 1 Euro) and the stuff tastes good! I wasn't in the mood for drinking so just ate really nice food and headed home. The following day I got a message from Chinh asking us if we wanted to meet up for a drink and we agreed to meet up after I finished work. However once I had finished work, I had a message saying that they couldn't meet us for some reason so Moira and I went for food at the Bia Hoi place again (the food there
Pagoda style Catholic church
This is at the end of my alleyway. It's the strangest but coolest looking church I have ever seen :) is delicious!). Picture this - two western girls (the only western people in the area) walking in to a Bia Hoi restaurant where there are only men, Moira is smoking (women smoking in Vietnam a HUGE no no!) and ordering a 4L pitcher of Bia Hoi. I don't think we would have caused such a stir if we had walked in naked!! It was amazingly funny! We are really used to being stared at by now but this was hilarious! For some reason after a few glasses of Bia Hoi, I decided to challenge people to drink with me. Now, if you invite someone to drink with you, they are obliged to do it, so I thought this would be a good way of making new friends! You can invite someone to drink 25% of their drink (hai muoi pham tram), 50% (nam muoi pham tram) or 100% (mot tram pham tram). Not content with the lesser numbers I was challenging everyone to drink 100% of their beer and I was doing the rounds, attempting it with one member of each table sitting there. Moira was very full and was trying to convince me to go home but I was
Pagoda style Catholic church
Another view of the pagoda style church. enjoying myself so much and the Vietnamese are so open and friendly that I feel they were enjoying the show too! I get to the last table - a table full of military men and I challenge all of them to mot tram pham tram. It was awesome! Needless to say I didn't feel too good the following day but I had a great time!
On Thursday Moira and I went to investigate our neighbourhood with cameras at the ready. We can see what looks like a huge pagoda from our house except that it has a cross on the roof so we were a little confused and went to check it out. It was indeed a church (catholic possibly) but very asian like as you can see from the pictures. Another thing we noticed was that every house had a Vietnamese flag hanging outside their house. Our alleyway looked amazing decked out in red and yellow and we decided when we got home that we would also place our flag out too. I scoured the Lonely PLanet for information on the date - maybe the flags were out to celebrate the end of the war, or the birth
West meets East
Our lady and child with a Chinese dragon at the forefront. or death of Ho Chi Minh but there was nothing. We though maybe it had something to do with the football team coming home... As Moira puts the flag up our neighbours come out and cheer! Have I told you how wonderful our neighbours are!? They are great and so so kind! So we felt a little proud of ourselves having hoisted this flag and having made our neighbours so happy. I went into work and found out that the flags are out due to the Communist party congress being held in Ho Chi Minh City.... hooooooray for Communism!! No wonder our neighbours were so impressed with us!
This Sunday just gone was Thu Ba's wedding. Thu Ba works for the company I cam out here with so we were all invited. I am continuously curious and striving to find out more about the Vietnamese culture and what better chance to do this than to go to a wedding. It started at 11 am and I wore the Vietnamese traditional dress (ao dai) which doesn't give much elasticity when you are eating so much food and drinking so much beer!!!! No one buys presents for the couple but instead
End of course party
My litlle jumpies throwing huge bean bags on me! It was so much fun! :) you put money in an envelope and stick it in a basket. Bearing in mind that there were at least 400 people there if everyone chips in 300,000 dong like we did (and some people were giving the couple 100 dollar notes) that's a hell of a lot of money!! Highlights of the wedding were 3 girls in pink ballerina dresses dancing with three boys looking like bullfighters, a champagne tower being poured by the bride and groom, flowers being given by the bride and groom to their respective parents in law and the bride changing dresses 3 times! The food was flowing as was the beer... you weren't allowed to at any time not have your glass full of beer. Every table had a designated waiter whose job as solely to pour beer. None of the Vietnamese women on our table were drinking alcohol (you don't see them smoking or drinking - my mum would love these ladies!) but this one Vietnamese guy kept challenging us to that damned 100% thing again!!! So I'm pretty full of food and beer, feeling a little drunk (I'm not going to lie) and my chest and stomach are squeezed in by this
ao dai... needless to say I felt a little ill... let's just say I spent the rest of the day in bed! 😊
That was my past week! 😊 Work is still great and one of my courses finished last weekend but will restart in February. However we had an end of course party ad I took them to the restaurant at school which has a bean bag pool! They kicked my ass as you can see from the photos!! I'm at this moment in time in Dalat which is about 300 km from Ho Chi Minh on a little holiday. Returning home on Thursday but Dalat deserves its own blog so I will write that another day! Quite excited as I am heading to a minority village outside Dalat on a motorbike AND it's really cold here too.. I have gloves, a wooly hat and a scarf!!! It's great!! You see Sarah, you can come over now that I have found a cold place for you to stay!!!
Hope you are all good!! I can't believe it's December and that I have been here for nearly 3 months. I love this place and it wil be a
tough decision to make when I have to decide whether to come home or not...
Speak soon,
Rooj xxx
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Rita - Weetabix
non-member comment
Come home or not?!
Ok, I do hope you have a good time there and just hope you make the most of it, but one thing is for sure: YOU, ARE COMING HOME! Even if I have to go there and get you! :/ Still no proper photo of your short hair...! Ainda n recebeste a encomenda? Os correios funcionam bem ai?! kisssssss ****