A Famous Philippines Victory

The Philippines aren't really a sporting nation. Other than Manny Pacquiao, there's not much to cheer around in the international sports scene.

Ranked 151st in the FIFA Rankings and barely qualfying for the 8-team AFF Suzuki Cup SE Asian football tournament, they pulled off the shock of all shocks. Beating host and defending champions Vietnam in Hanoi!

Vietnamese Body Painting

Source: VietNamNet

As one of the first artists in Vietnam to pursue body painting art, Ngo Luc said that he has had to overcome many obstacles to follow his passion. Luc shares his latest body paintings with the cooperation of models Hanh Quyen and Vinh Nghi.

That's looks like alot of work. I'm not sure I'm patient enough to lie there for hours to have someone paint me!

See All Pictures Here

Everybody has a stream bath

Source: VietNamNet

Each afternoon, Vu Oai commune in Quang Ninh province in Vietnam is very bustling, like during a festival. Everybody from kids to elderly people cheerfully go to the local stream to swim.

In Vu Oai, from babies of 2-3 years old to old people of 70-80, everyone is closely attached to the local stream. Vu Oai commune’s chairman named Tay said having a stream bath is a cultural aspect of local residents.

At 4-5pm everyday, both in summer and winter, everyone goes to the stream to swim.

Hmmm I don't know. A stream bath every single day? Once in awhile would be cool but to go there everyday would get boring pretty quick. Although it must be nice to be able to swim year-round without freezing your ass off.

I like the girl with the polka-dot pants. That's cute :)

Becoming Canadian

Source: Metro Ottawa

It has been almost 30 years since she left her native Vietnam.

But while she thrives in Ottawa — a city she’s happily called home since 1981 — lawyer Nhung Hoang remains active in the immigrant community helping people in refugee camps.

“I have been a refugee, so I want to help them,” she said. “They need a place that they can call home.”

Looking back on her arrival in Ottawa, Hoang said the first time she stepped out of the hotel she was staying in, it was so cold that she had to immediately run back inside. It was a sunny day, so she just assumed it would be warm.

After all, the 25-year-old had just flown to Canada after a six-month stay in a refugee camp in Hong Kong.

Before arriving in Hong Kong, Hoang had worked as an English as a second language teacher in Danang, Vietnam.

In July 1980 — unable to tolerate life under the communist regime — Hoang’s parents put her and her brother on a boat to Hong Kong.

They spent five days at sea before the Hong Kong Royal Marine Police escorted the boat to shore.

Because she could speak English, Hoang worked as an interpreter at the Red Cross clinic in the refugee camp until the Government of Canada sponsored her and her brother to move to Ottawa.

When she arrived, Hoang took a four-month course in electronics assembly at Algonquin College.

Despite a degree in education from a university in Vietnam, she could only find work in a factory. After one year in the factory, she enrolled at the University of Ottawa and got a sociology degree, which was followed by a law degree in 1988. Huang was called to the bar in March 1990.

“At the time, my mom and dad were still in Vietnam. My father worked for the former regime and they could hide some gold that they could sell to eat,” she said. “That’s how I could go to school. We were lucky that we didn’t have to work very hard to send money back home to them.”

She married Jonathan Chaplan in 1993; he’s learned to speak fluent Vietnamese. They have a son, 15.

“In Canada, to use the title of an exhibition at Canadian Museum of Civilization … we are Vietnamese Boat People: No Longer,” she said. “Many of us became engineers, computer programmers, medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, professors, teachers and business people.”

It's a really good story about Vietnamese immigrants coming to Canada in the last 70s and early 80s with nothing and making a life for themselves.

Although the attitude in last quote in the article has always bothered me.

“In Canada, to use the title of an exhibition at Canadian Museum of Civilization … we are Vietnamese Boat People: No Longer,” she said. “Many of us became engineers, computer programmers, medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, professors, teachers and business people.”

Vietnamese Boat People: No Longer bothers me. No matter how successful you become you're always a boat person. It is part of your identity and your bravery for escaping the ruthless communist regime.

Secondly, why it it always just engineers, computer programmers, medical doctors, dentists, pharmacists, professors, teachers and business people? I've never liked this elitist attitude. People who are these professionals often thumb their noses at the same boat people who aren't as successful, even people on the same boat. Obviously this isn't the case here as this lady has used her position to help other refugees to come to Canada. However I still don't like the quote.


There are just as many successful mechanics, restaurant owners, jewelers, electricians, welders, home designers/carpenters etc etc.

And if you are not aware of how boat people escaped Vietnam. Here's the late Ed Bradley's report on the boat people in 1979.


Youtube Link

Let's Hire a Girlfriend Every Sunday!

Source: Thanh Nien

Hong hangs out with him every Sunday, meets his friends, listens to his tales of happiness and woe, and even cooks for him sometimes if he wants, but they never make love.

The garment factory worker is an occasional escort who gets paid VND300,000-500,000 (US$17-28) for playing girlfriend for half a day or a full day.

More middle-aged men in Ho Chi Minh City feel lonely and stressed out from work these days and want a girl to go out with, and tell their troubles to, with no strings attached.

Their loneliness has given birth to what is a new service in Vietnam whereby a man hires a girl to be his “lover for a day.” Most of the chaste escorts have moved to the city from the Mekong Delta countryside to work in the factories.

For Hong, it started out by accident when a co-worker told her about a cousin, a forty-something businessman with no emotional ties who just wanted a girl beside him on Sundays.

The first time they met, the businessman told Hong he needed a girl to accompany him sometimes when he met his friends or went to the café on Sundays. Aside from that, they would have nothing to do with each other.

“He made it clear that he needed a tender girl to listen to him, and no sex,” said Hong, who comes from An Giang Province and works in Tan Tao Industrial Park in Binh Tan District.

Even with overtime, she makes VND1.5 million a month at most from her factory job.

“I lose nothing working as a girlfriend. All I have to do is go out with him and listen to him, and I get money. It helps that he’s an educated and kind man.”

The extra job allows Hong to send more money home while the man was, and still is, happy to have someone to talk to about his work, sometimes his family troubles, and feel proud to have a pretty and well-behaved girl of his own to introduce to his friends.

Some of these friends were quick to catch on and asked Hong to introduce her co-workers to be their “girlfriends.”

.....more

VND1.5 million is $100 US.

I think it's a pretty cute idea. Some men just need a companion to talk to, to discuss his troubles inlife. I don't like the part where he needs a girl to meet friends. They're his friends and they wouldn't think any less of him if he didn't have a gf. His friends are probably single too since single guys hang out together.

Could this work? If the guy is successful and she talks to him every Sunday, wouldn't they get closer and closer. Eventually there would have to be some feelings right?

If you're a guy, would you pay to be in the friend's zone!?

First China, then Vietnam... now Myanmar brides?

Source: Asiaone

MOVE over, Vietnam brides. Here come the Myanmar maidens.

Aged between 20 and 35, they are ethnic Chinese who can speak Mandarin and cook Chinese meals.

So they would find it easier to adapt to life in Singapore, said Mr Mark Lin of Vietnam Brides International, who's offering his customers a wider choice of brides.

Mr Lin, who had specialised in Vietnam brides since 2003, said: 'I have to teach Vietnamese girls Mandarin if they don't speak it. But these Myanmar women are already fluent in the language.'

He said the women are keen to marry Singaporean men because they want better lives outside Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1988.

While agencies offering Vietnamese brides charge between $6,000 and $8,000, Mr Lin charges $8,800 for Myanmar brides.

....more

I wonder what contry will be next when men get bored of Myanmar brides? what's wrong with Singaporean brides anyways?

Related: Don't treat Vietnamese brides like consumer goods

Little Saigon Coffee Shop is the New Hooters

Source: laist

Say you're a guy that likes attractive Vietnamese gals. You also have a passion for caffeine. You've no doubt been frustrated, and said to your friends time after time, "geez, when will Garden Grove get a Vietnamese coffee shop that offers more sex appeal than Starbucks' green aprons?" Time to get happy. Cafe Di Vang 2 is the spot. They're the "Asian Hooters for coffee," according to one of their bikini-wearing tea-pourers.

The bikini bar is nothing new so since the Vietnamese like to drink coffee, play cards and chess, a bikini coffe shop makes perfect sense.

Are kids going online for study or for fun?

Source: VietNamNet Bridge

This is a “shock”: Vietnam was not among the top ten countries for searching on “sex” on Google in 2005-2007. As of 2008, however, Google Trends reports that Vietnamese users had vaulted the country to fourth, third and then to the first position, ahead of Egypt and India.

Nobody can deny the benefits of the Internet, but the above statistic must worry us. Clearly, a segment of Vietnamese users go online to satisfy their addiction to sex, not for studies and research.

If they can’t visit the sex sites, why surf?

That is the statement of many young people about their habit of using the ‘Net as a means to satisfy their sex addiction. They browse the Internet only to only search for websites about sex.

The black website named “Mocxi”, which was closed recently, was familiar to many young people. This site had a huge number of members. However, this is not the only Vietnamese language sex site.

People look for sex everywhere. Sex has only been going on for thousands of years before the internet was popular. I'm sure the Vietnamese searches for sex before 2008. There was just no way of recording it!

A Chili Sauce to Crow About

Source: NY Times

AFTER-HOURS calls to Huy Fong Foods, here in the suburbs of the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, are intercepted by an answering machine. One recent day, 14 messages were blinking when Donna Lam, the operations manager, hit “play.”

A woman told of smearing Huy Fong’s flagship product, Tuong Ot Sriracha (Sriracha Chili Sauce), on multigrain snack chips. A man proclaimed the purée of fresh red jalapeños, garlic powder, sugar, salt and vinegar to be “the bomb,” and thanked Ms. Lam’s employers for “much joy and pleasure.”

Another caller, hampered by a slight slur, botched the pronunciation of the product name before asking whether discount pricing might be available. Finally, he blurted, “I love rooster sauce!” (A strutting rooster, gleaming white against a backdrop of the bright red sauce, dominates Huy Fong’s trademark green-capped clear plastic squeeze bottles.)

“I guess it goes with alcohol,” deadpanned Ms. Lam, who, like David Tran, the 64-year-old founder of Huy Fong and creator of its sauce, is both proud of the product’s popularity and flummoxed by fans’ devotion.

The lure of Asian authenticity is part of the appeal. Some American consumers believe sriracha (properly pronounced SIR-rotch-ah) to be a Thai sauce. Others think it is Vietnamese. The truth is that sriracha, as manufactured by Huy Fong Foods, may be best understood as an American sauce, a polyglot purée with roots in different places and peoples.

.....more

I don't like hot sauce that much and I can take a little dab in a bowl of PHO. So there's always a bottle of Sriracha in my fridge :)

Vietnam's condom business goes upscale

Source: Google

In Vietnam's fast-growing commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City, most people buy cheap condoms from no-frills roadside kiosks, at the drug store or in supermarkets.

But two brothers have opened an upmarket condom boutique here, saying customers want more choice and more sophisticated options -- even in a country known for being socially conservative, where sex education is taboo.

"Doing this business is good for the public and the society," says Nguyen Khanh Phong, 28.

"We went to the authorities and asked for permission and they allowed us," adds his 21-year-old brother Nguyen Hoang Long.

"Now things come easier," he adds, noting that the business -- open for more than two months now -- is thriving.

The shop, called Volcano, makes no attempt to hide what it's selling. Condom boxes are stuck to the glass doors of the tiny store, the walls are painted pink and shelves are stacked with condoms from across Asia.

"We spent a lot of money," Phong says. "It looks friendly."

.....more

WOO! Your friendly neighbourhood condom store.

Actually Vietnam isn't as socially conservative as one would think. Especially in the Southern part of the country where Vietnam has been influenced by centuries of first French and then American influence. There is plenty of nightlife in Ho Chi Minh City where youngins can be seen clubbing late into the night. Having a store like this is great. The more youths are educated about sex and enjoy sex, the better.

My Vietnamese 8th Graders are new Linux users

Source: SaigonNezumi

With just less than one month left of class, I decided to see if my 8th Grade students at the American International School in Saigon would be interested in learning Linux. I am glad I tried because these kids seemed to be having a lot of fun.

This week I just wanted them to learn the basic Linux command line. Since the school only uses Windows XP, I worked with the IT staff and got Putty installed on all of the student computers. They then used Putty and and secure shelled to my Easy Peasy Ubuntu Netbook. I just created one generic username and password for my 8th Graders. Next week they will all get their own accounts on my Netbook. I just wanted them to get a feel of Linux first.

.....more

That's pretty cool. Something that can only be done in small class with private teachers. In Canada, I don't think Linux is taught in junior high cause everything is Winblows!

Fish sauce - Vietnamese unique ingredient

Source: Vietnam Travel Blog

Nuoc mam, fish sauce, is the most essential ingredient for everyday meals and cooking in Viet Nam.

It is a signature aspect of Vietnamese cuisine, and distinguishes it from Chinese cooking, which is marked by its prominent use of soy sauce. This inimitable, Vietnamese sauce is obtained through the maceration of saltwater fish and their fermentation under sunny, natural conditions. The ingredients and climate are readily available thanks to the country’s lengthy coastline and tropical forecasts.

The best nuoc mam comes from the islands of Phu Quoc and Cat Hai, respectively on the southwestern and northern coasts, and from the central province of Phan Thiet.

There’s a Thai variation of nuoc mam, but it does not compare to the original Vietnamese product. Nuoc mam is rich in amino acids, sodium chloride, histamines and organic and mineral phosphors.

Nuoc mam may have a strong smell for the uninitiated, but it is no more intense than a Roquefort cheese or a gamy meat. Plus, there are ways to lighten the odour, namely by not using it when cooking over an open fire.

By flavouring it with a variety of condiments, nuoc mam can be used to enhance a number of different dishes. When ginger is added, it is perfect for boiled duck; vinegar, lemon, garlic and onion are added for fried fish; and a smashed, hard-boiled duck egg may be added for boiled cabbage.

Nem, spring rolls, require a very light sauce seasoned simply with vinegar, sugar and pepper, while banh cuon, a plain or stuffed rice wrap, goes particularly well with a wee bit of natural belostomid essence.

In Phan Thiet, home to one of the country’s most famous brands, nuoc mam is garnished with pineapple slices, while house wives in some other parts of the South boast a more exotic recipe: nuoc mam in boiled coconut milk.

But the ingredient that tops all others is chilli, fresh or powdered the hotter the better and lots of it. In addition to nuoc mam, there are paste products, generically named mam, also made from macerated marine fish and crustaceans and believed to have been introduced by the Cham and other ethnic groups of Malayo-Polynesian origin.

The most common of these other products is the shrimp-based mam tom, notorious for its strong smell but irreplaceable in regards to dog meat, pig organs, grilled tofu and fat pork. Mam tom, called mam ruoc in the central regions, is a must-have for certain Hue specialities, such as bun bo, beef noodles, and com hen, mussels with rice.

Still, there’s nothing like mam tom chua, sour fermented shrimp, the crown jewel of Hue cooking. Farmers in the Hong (Red) River Delta have their own special brew, which they make from small, fresh-water shrimp and call mam tep. It’s unforgettable once you’ve tried it with a little fat pork, noodles and some aromatic herbs.

So next time you're at a Vietnamese Restaurant and have rice or vermicelli make sure you have it with nuoc mam!

A Vietnam Reporter's 8mm Camera Gun

Source : Gizmodo

While most people on the front lines would hope to pack a 9mm or better, one Vietnam reporter carried this deadly-looking Bolex 8mm camera gun that did nothing but shoot film.

As Boing Boing Gadgets points out, even if the rifle components offered the shooter some level of stability amidst the whizzing bullets of a war zone, would you ever want to look like you were aiming a gun at someone if you weren't really aiming a gun at someone?

You can bid on this Bolex H-8 on eBay now (it's over $1,000)

Look how small that is? I wouldn't be surprised if the reporter is dead. How are you supposed to draw that thing and shoot it quickly with such a tiny trigger?

Group of foreign workers wants chance to stay

Source: chron.com

Thang Hong Luu pledged his parents’ house in Vietnam as collateral to raise enough money to take advantage of a job opportunity in America.

He says he paid a $10,000 fee to be chosen for a 2½ -year stint as a welder that he thought would earn him more than $100,000 — money that seemed out of reach in Vietnam.

But in February, eight months into his work contract, he was told he’d have to go home, he said.

“There is a lot of injustice and deception that I don’t understand,” he said through an interpreter, Tammy Tran, who is also one of his attorneys.

On Tuesday, he was the first of about 20 workers Tran represents to file a lawsuit claiming Coast to Coast Resources, a Port Aransas-based staffing agency for skilled laborers, and ILP Agency, a Louisiana-based labor firm, promised work for 30 months at $15 per hour but reneged months into the contract.

Luu says the companies charged him and his fellow workers a fee of between $6,500 and $15,000 to be chosen for the U.S. jobs; told them not to speak to outsiders because Americans disliked citizens of communist countries; and overcharged them for housing and transportation.

Sad isn't it but making illegal workers pay for the chance at work in America is the oldest scam in the book. Conditions in Vietnam are so poor that men can easily be tricked into paying to take job that promise them $100000 a year.

Luu’s contract with Coast to Coast notes he would earn $15 an hour for the first 40 hours and an additional $22.50 an hour for overtime.

He also agreed to pay Coast to Coast $500 a month in rent, $85 a month for transportation and a management fee of $2 per hour worked, according to a copy of his contract.

He said he didn’t know when he signed the contract that he’d be sharing an apartment with three other workers.

Coast to Coast’s attorney said the management fee was never charged but the various other charges were often lower than the contract allowed.

The charges covered expenses the company incurred for the workers, including assisting them with housing, food, transportation, medical needs, tools, electricity, furniture, a full-time apartment supervisor and a registered nurse, he said.

Luu netted an average $13 an hour, according to Funk.

Yup. $15 is dirt cheap for a welder. A legal unionized welder would make alot more.

Jobless and afraid to return home without the funds to pay off debt he took on to come to America, Luu remains in limbo.

He and the other workers are relying on the local Vietnamese community for help.

On another legal front, immigration attorneys at Foster Quan said they plan to seek visas for the workers that will let them stay in the U.S. as victims of a crime or of human trafficking during an ongoing investigation.

Luu said he wants to stay in America long enough to earn what he needs to pay off the loan on his parents’ home and help educate his six nieces and nephews.

“I’d like to stay here legally for two to three years,” he said. “I am very scared for my family.”

It's tough but one has to think before taking such risks. There are no guarantees that there will be work. Any of us that work can be let go at anytime.

As for getting help from the local Vietnamese community, good luck. Recently people who come from Vietnam to America to work often thumb their noses at the local Vietnamese that have already been established in the US. I don't see the local Vietnamese being able or wanting to help much.

It Is Good To Be A Girl In Vietnam

Source: Saigon Nezumi

Well, finally, the endless marathon of giving gifts and flowers to girls will end on Sunday. March 8th is International Women’s Day which is observed in Vietnam. On this day, guys must give their girlfriends and/or wives flowers and a nice card. Some guys will even take their girlfriend and/or wife out to a good dinner. It can be a romantic occasion.

If you are a guy and you forget this day, umm, you will be in big trouble. Especially if you have a girlfriend or are married. For that matter, if you miss the other significant days for girls here, you can get into big trouble.

I mentioned in the first paragraph about the marathon of gifts and flowers. It is quite true. Gift and flower giving starts in December and ends in March. During those 4 months, you have five occassions where you must give flowers and/or gifts. They include:

* Christmas (December 24/25th) - Must give a gift and dinner
* New Year’s Eve (December 31st) - Must give a gift and dinner
* Tet Lunar New Year - Must give a gift and lucky money
* Valentine’s Day (February 14) - Must give flowers , chocolate, and dinner
* Women’s Day (March 8th) - Must give flowers and dinner

There are two other occasions where you will have to give flowers and/or a gift to your girlfriend and/or wife:

* Birthday - Must give flowers, card, gift, and pay for their birthday party
* Vietnam Women’s Day (October 20th) - Just flowers are ok on this day

I think the Vietnamese have missed the point for March 8. International Women's Day is a day to celebrate women and for women for fight for equal rights in society. You will usually see mass-demonstrations on this day. It's kind of like a Women's Labour Day. It shouldn't be a day to wine and dine girlfriend.

In Canada I think it's been reduced to just Christmas, Birthday and Valentines. Although these are totally blown out of proportion these days.

Debate over Communist symbols in Orange County art exhibit

Follow up to Art group portrays Vietnamese symbols on canvas

Source: LA Times

A provocative art exhibit that opened on the outskirts of Little Saigon this weekend got a strong reaction from some Vietnamese Americans who were offended by the pieces of art that featured Communist symbols.

The exhibit, commissioned by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Assn., displayed works that included Communist symbols, the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam and artwork that has been banned in Vietnam.

The curators wanted to start a discussion in the Vietnamese community, where talk of politics other than staunch anti-communism is taboo and any hint of associating with Communists, whether perceived or real, can erupt in street protests.

Yup. People don't want to see it. It may seem paranoid and often silly but that's how they feel. If you let tolerate one thing, they'll keep advancing.

There were some heated calls to take the photo down. In the meantime, someone has spit on the artwork and made a scratch through the glass on top of the photo. But the photo did spark a discussion between the arts group and the members of the Vietnamese American community who saw the piece as hurtful. "We left our home country because of the regime of the Communists. This art brings back memories of the hurt and suffering of our people that still pains us today," Phuong Le of Canoga Park told exhibit organizers Sunday. "When you judge art, you have to view it in history and see that these images only open wounds that continue to hurt us."

The organizers have refused to remove the photo. "We considered what they had said, and we felt that this was still something that should be up for discussion," said Tram Le, one of the co-curators. Le said that some Vietnamese Americans who came to see the photo did not find it to be offensive.

Some Vietnamese community members have threatened protests if the photo is not removed. Vietnamese community leaders are meeting today to discuss what action to take next.

This will get ugly very very soon. Maybe they'll burn it all down.

Art group portrays Vietnamese symbols on canvas

Source: LA Times

An exhibit commissioned by a Vietnamese-American arts group will open in Santa Ana, a display that purposely includes communist symbols, the flag of the fallen country of South Vietnam and artwork that has been banned in Vietnam.

In the middle of the United States’ largest Vietnamese population, the curators hope to challenge sensibilities and provoke discussion in a community where the topic has long been taboo.

Oh boy. Challenging sensibilities of people who have so much hated for anything that symbolizes communist Vietnam.

“I felt the community was on this slippery slope, that we were not progressing toward having open dialogue and being more tolerant of different political viewpoints.”

Eeeep. Open dialogue? Tolerant of different political viewpoints? In America, you can't even get people to be tolerant of Republican-Democratic or Prop 8 let alone COMMUNISM!

Titled “F.O.B. II: Art Speaks,” the name is a play on the pejorative moniker “fresh off the boat,” a term given to immigrants who came to the United States by boat, including hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees who escaped after the Vietnam War was ended.

*shudder*

One of the more provocative pieces is a photograph by Brian Doan of a girl in Vietnam wearing a red tank top with a yellow star. On a table is a small bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh and a cell phone.

“This piece uses the communist flag but isn’t celebratory of communism,” said Lan Duong, a co-curator, and assistant professor of media at UC Riverside. “The communist flag isn’t used just as a political symbol, but of what is going on in Vietnam and the kinds of modes of consumption that marks youth culture.”

How can academics be so stupid? A person wearing a red t-shirt with a yellow star in the middle with Ho Chi Minh on her cellphone isn't celebratory of communism? These professors would be mopping the floor in Communist Vietnam. They were fortunate to escape here, now they want to bring us to be tolerant? They have way too much time on their hands.



This is an issue that can't resolved. I don't have a hated for the people of Vietnam even though I am "Viet Kieu". If I was born in Vietnam instead of Canada after the war then I'd be supporting that flag as well. Vietnamese-Americans in Orange County, even though I'm on their side, always go overboard. They'll protest anything! If you don't support them, you're communist.

After being quiet for a few year things were pretty hectic for the Vietnamese-American community with the Foot Spa Flag and Madison Nguyen recall incident. And now they're going to open a new can of worms with this exhibit. Expect a backlash very soon.

Hitler lose the bet on Vietnam - Thailand final match AFF cup

Hahaha! We've all seen the Hitler scene from Downfall used in a million different situations. I never though I'd see it used for Vietnam's recently AFF Cup victory :)


Youtube Link

And if you missed it, this is the goal that got Hitler so mad! :)


Youtube Link

Vietnam win their first international title

Source: Nhan Dan


Youtube Link

I think my dad's lost more sleep over the last two weeks than at any other time waking up at 5am to watch four Vietnam matches over that period of time.

The last time Vietnam won a tournament (a minor one), he was 11 years old! :) My dad tells me that in that tournament in 1959,goalkeeper Pham Van Rang was the MVP. He died last month. In this tournament, goalkeeper Duong Hong Son was named the MVP. Divine intervention perhaps? :)

Christmas in Vietnam

Source: Thanh Nien News

Santa Claus and Xmas trees have become so familiar with Vietnamese over the past decade that neither families nor companies are skimping on their Christmas budgets despite the global economic recession.

Purchasing decorations for Xmas and New Year celebrations, reserving parties at hotels, karaoke restaurants and cabarets or booking tours to romantic destinations are some of the most popular plans for the festive season in Vietnam.

Season preparations began last month in all of Vietnam’s big cities with Santa Clauses smiling at the entrance to shopping malls and Christmas lights illuminating the main streets.

"Christmas is an opportunity to go out with family and friends rather than a time for religious reflection," says 24-year-old Hoang, who plans to spend Christmas night at HCMC’s Lush Bar with his friends.

In Vietnam, Christmas has turned into a commercial holiday more than a religious one. Christians in Vietnam celebrate it religiously but that number is only around 15%.

Buying presents for Christmas AND Tet. That would make anyone broke.

Another good thing about Christmas is you get to see Vietnamese girls in Christmas-y red Ao Dai