As ever, I was up early to head for football. Today, though, I wasn’t running around quite so much. I refreed a game between the Blue Dragon and a local team which went well, finishing a very fair 1-1. In honesty, BD should have won it – they had the chances – but spurned so many open goals!

Afterwards I was taken to a cafe by the staff (the same one as last week) and this time I had a fruit salad with yoghurt, and a slice of the most divine chocolate cake. The Vietnamese certainly learned how to bake from the French all those years ago! Interestingly, the Vietnamese for Chocolate Gateaux is Ga To Socola. Yup, it’s French – but written phonetically in Vietnamese. This is quite common for many things that I’ve spotted recently. One curious one is “hamburger”: Ham Bo Go. It’s curious as it’s both phonetic and correct – “Bo” is “beef”! Well, depending on what accent you use on it. If you pronounce it “bur”, it means “butter”.

The rest of the day was one big chill-out. People arrived, people left, beer was drunk. The usual! Two Irish guys and a girl arrived just as I was returning from Bia Hoi, so Eamonn and I gave them a hand into the hostel with their bags before turning in.