Football in the Street

Ok ok ok. So, Cat Ba island is the land of scams and mafia-like taxi/moto-services BUT it's awesome. It's a continuation of everything bad I described in my prior blog post, and it's surprisingly awesome also.

We've spent the majority of our rainy time here playing Monopoly the card game, Ports of Call and Chinese Chess. All very addictive in their own right.

Tonight, dear diary, was awesome. After a whole afternoon of eating and reading to my hearts content I found myself on a beach with a soccer ball, Tom, Anna, Craig, Blinky, and a bottle of Vietnamese Whisky. Sunset ensued but did not deter. After several hours our need for food drove us back towards the city, but we were delayed. The soccer ball we were passing enticed a few locals out. Out to play a game of 4 on 4. In the middle of the main street. We must have played for roughly an hour, with crowds gathering. Blinky, random French-man, Craig and myself vs Tom and 3 chaps. The game was physically demanding, and saw Craig exit due to injury early on, to be replaced by a Vietnamese passerby. There were many challenging passes, tackles and chases. Everything that makes a game worth while playing. Dominating the street, we played long and hard. The locals loved it. By the end we had an audience roughly 30-strong, some of whom insisted on sharing broken-English conversations for a while afterwards.

As if this wasn't perfect enough we all had a delicious Pho for dinner; this night could not have gone any better! Viva la Vietnam.