Vietnam Swannies...they're alright!!!

This weekend I experienced a lot of firsts. My first Cannon ball run*, my first live AFL game, my first fine session**,  skulling a whole can of beer out of a trophy cup***, seeing my man in short short AFL shorts, eating a meat pie in Asia and most of all seeing Tuan debut in an Australian Football Tournament and scoring...twice!!!

Thanks all to the Vietnam Swans!

The Vietnam Swans, an Australian Rules Football club represented by a bunch of top Aussie blokes, a Frenchmen (wannabe Aussie), Canadian and now an American, celebrate their tenth year in Vietnam. For more information visit the club's website here.

The club regularly tours throughout Asia and this weekend they played and won their fourth consecutive annual AFL Indochina Cup at the Navy Sports Ground in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The tournament included great comradery from the Laos Elephants, Thailand Tigers, Cambodian Eagles and Vietnam Swans.

Tuan recently joined the club to train and very quickly got to play in his first tournament. I had the privilege to join these guys on their tour. It was an intense match and crazy weekend which I surprisingly enjoyed. Well done to a great win and ending the season on a high!

Go you Swannies!

The Swans Song

Footnotes:
* Cannonball run - A bus ride to play a footy game, this run consisted of 15 cases of beer and 5 bottles of liquor, only for the ride back of course. (the funnest and rowdiest 6 hr bus ride ever! plus interesting moments getting these larikans through the Vietnam and Cambodia borders.)
** Fine session - on the bus ride a fine or two which consists of skulling a beer is allocated to each person for random things on tour. e.g. jumping from the 2nd floor balcony into the hotel pool...and surviving, having an American lead the huddle chants....
*** Skulling beer out of the trophy cup - a tradition for each player to do after winning a tournament.

The team and their Cup!

A Belly Dancer in Saigon

Whenever I get the chance (which isn't as often as I should ) I try to do some exercise. I've found a studio where they run different types of classes. From yoga, step up, aerobics, bum's & tum's, bollywood and belly dancing. So far I've tried and enjoyed the first three. With my great negotiating, classes work out to be approximately $1.30 a class!

The other day I showed up a little early to my step up class and had the privilege to watch the last few moments of a belly dance class in Saigon. I was quite impressed! I had seen the belly dance class on the schedule and told myself I should try it out one of these days but never got around or prioritised this option. So here I was sitting in the lobby utilising the free wifi which is surprisingly readily available in most Saigon establishments. Sitting there I hear catchy bollywood music with the sound of bells coming from one of the studios. I take a peak inside and was surprised at what I saw. Amongst all the chaos of Saigon, tucked away in this little studio was a group of 12 or so sexy belly dancers! They wore the belly dancer belts draped with coins and weren't shy to bare their torso's. The demographics of the group varied greatly, from young to old, slim to curvy with one male. I saw another side of my step class instructor I had never imagined, she was dressed like Jasmin from Aladdin! (she briefly runs through the video below at 0:50). I was quite stunned at this scene. They were practicing their latest routine. I had thought a belly dance class would only consist of repetitive hip shaking exercise routines to burn a few extra calories in a more fun and creative way. However this class had been taught a full routine with proper belly dancing music.

With my head peaking around the door I was warmly invited to sit at the front of the room as they re-performed their group routine. I think they enjoyed any chance to perform in front of an audience. It was quite interesting to watch the exotic choreography. I was very impressed and admired the level of confidence and rhythm this group of Vietnamese people had. As fun at it looked I became more convinced I'd stick with my yoga and step class. Firstly I could not pull off these hip shaking moves as well as they did and where does one find a belly dancer belt in Saigon!? A short while later their performance was over, they stood their applauding with big smiles on their faces excitingly talking in Vietnamese. I assume having a debrief of their last routine. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and was hoping they'd do it again when one of the members, the only male, confidently took to the stage solo, hushed the audience, asked for the replay button to be hit, and put on his dance face. That's when the real magic happened.

Basketball Mascot's in Vietnam can DANCE!

On the weekend we got to watch the last game of the basketball season in Vietnam. Vietnam is proudly represented in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) by their one and only pro basketball team, Saigon Heat. Blatantly ripped off name from the Miami Heat's, I do have to give them some originality to their name...It's excruciatingly hot in Saigon. And I bet the temperature of an average day here generates much more "heat" then the hottest day in Miami! (Yep... I give credit to anyone who trains in this heat lol). The team is quite international with players from the Phillipines, USA and Vietnam. I do wonder how much grief the international players get over their team name when they tell their friends and families back home.

The ABL, founded in 2009 is relatively new and consists of 7 competitive teams (as below) with only 4 seasons under their belt they've been able to attract large crowds to their games. Unfortunately Vietnam didn't make it to this year's play offs.

ASEAN Basketball League consists of these countries.

As fun as it is to watch the game I find everything else about live games quite entertaining, especially here at the Tan Binh Stadium. It's no Madison Square Garden, but the audience is enthusiastic, loud and energetic. They (including I) clap our complimentary bright red thunder sticks and stomp our feet. Good plays and passes receive standing ovations with loud cheers and clapping. "D-fence" is repeatedly chanted loudly and the fans and cheer leaders aren't shy to distract the visiting team's free throw line ups. They aren't short on creative timeout crowd games or throwing giveaways into the audience either, sling shot and all. Enthusiastic cheer leaders and dancing mascots execute their roles well as the resident DJ spins modern dance tunes. One thing missing though is the Mexican Wave, too bad the season is over, otherwise I'd be on a mission to start one. I think the basketball audience here would love and adopt it straight away!

Check out the two video's from half time and our pic with the MVP of the game.

Larry Tieu, Vietnamese born in California, played college basketball before going pro in Saigon.

The beginnings...of VietFran

Well here it goes. I've finally submitted to starting a blog. How long will I sustain it for? That is the million dollar question. The objective is for me to have a personal archive of what I'll experience on my year abroad. And a chance to share my experiences with my friends, family and maybe an odd troller or two like myself. Either way I do know I'll always have one loyal reader, My Mum. (happy Mothers day for Sunday) She always did encourage me to start a blog.

Tomorrow will be my three month anniversary from leaving Sydney (home/family/friends/hot chips with chicken salt/work and life as I knew it) and as much as I miss the comforts of home, it's been a fun and exhilarating experience. And I guess the natural way to start my first entry would be from the beginning...

Tuan and I had been in a LDR (loooong distance relationship) for 7 years when we finally started talking about going abroad.  At the time we really had no plan, initially Europe, London etc... I was willing to wing it, ready for a change and confident I'd be able to find a job anywhere or happy to take some time off to travel and volunteer. On the other hand, Tuan wanted a job set up before leaving New York and with Europe's current economic situation we were finding it quite difficult. Months flew by with no progress of our big idea to travel the world! That's when we decided to open our options to Asia and low and behold, Tuan got a job offer in Vietnam. I still remember the conversation when Tuan told me he got a call back from a job he had applied for in Saigon.

"Saigon?" "Yes." "in China?" "No, Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City!" "ohhh..."

It took a moment to sink in, plus I was getting over my shameful naiveness. Saigon, of course I knew where Saigon was, I grew up in Cabramatta! It's just that Vietnam had not crossed any of our conversations....at all.

So totally out of the box and quite quickly, we agreed to Vietnam, out of it came an opportunity for me to take a year off to travel and volunteer. Where as moving to Europe I would have jumped straight into a typical 9-5 job with short, gastronomic, train hopping, European weekends away (which actually doesn't sound too bad).

But here we are, 3 months in and I've come to enjoy this country (for the record I still have a lot more embracing to do) and there's plenty I'd like to share just from my first 3 months away, but who know's what I decide to write about next.

Join me as I learn to embrace this vibrant country, Vietnam and it's surrounding countries.

The front cover of the super awesome farewell card my work mates made for me just before I left.