do BJJ, get mad skilz!

Yeah, you learn to move upside down, back to front and (almost) inside out. Ergo, weird contortions are no problemo for BJJ players :-)

I had a fantastic opportunity to show off my skills to friends the other night. After dinner, we took to the recliners. And after some five years of having the damn things, I decided it was the night to finally take the plastic covers off the foot rests. They were sewn on, so they needed careful cutting along the edge, instead of just ripping them off as I'd hoped. So I got my trusty scissors and took to the floor to perform the operation. Pesky little bastards were awkward to get to, so I had to resort to my mad upside down contortion skilz, and here is evidence:

It didn't feel in the least bit awkward :-)

seminar: John Will

Last Friday, we had another seminar. This time, I didn't have to travel, as John Will came to our school in Ballarat.

We had a two hour long session with the main theme Z-guard. We learned 3 back takes from there and one attack to front choke. Then we worked on 3 sweeps and another attack, being a figure four. One of the sweeps was a reverse Berimbolo, which is something I've been wanting to play around with for a while.

Interesting stuff, and I've been playing with Z-guard for a while. So it was excellent from my point of view. Since then, we've had one class where we've gone over some of the back takes, and I'm sure we'll do more sessions.

Photo by Kim Hamilton

seminar: Carlos Machado

On May 18, a few of us went to John Will's Black Belt Studios in Geelong to attend a 3 hour long clinic with Carlos Machado.

That was a real treat. He is an entertaining guy and a superb teacher. We didn't go into any new and/or fancy moves. It was all about principles and overarching themes. Also about little things that make well known techniques better. For example, how to use a slight angle and a certain stance to make a standing guard pass a high percentage move. How to be more effective with a cross lapel choke from mount and to force a finish if the opponent defends the choke. Also a lot on guard passing (by popular request), which boiled down to good defensive posture and what he called "holding the tray". Small circular movements, using elbows and hands had big effect when used in conjunction with this posture.

He said when he started that he doesn't like to exert himself, being a "lazy" grappler. That sure appealed to me ;-)

He demonstrated his defensive open guard techniques by picking the biggest guy on the floor. I'm not kidding when I say this guy is huge, and I know from personal encounters just how big and heavy he is... Well, Carlos insisted he uses all his weight to try and pin his legs down, and then effortlessly wriggled out! We also looked at side control escapes (also by popular request), which was a real eye-opener. As with all other stuff we learned, relatively small things which made a big difference.

Overall, a great seminar, and I would recommend anyone to snatch up the opportunity to train with Carlos.

comps do weird stuff to your brain.

Oh yeah, I have some catching up to do... I've been so busy! But now that the semester is over, and all work handed in, it's time to take a breath, slow down and catch up on things :-)

First things first, I went to the GTA Championship in Melbourne on May 13. It was, like last time, a fairly well run comp. It did run a lot later this year, but it's a friendly comp and I enjoy it.

Nothing spectacular to report. I was up against Jodie in the "belt/weight/age" division. As usual, that meant up a couple of weight categories, and down an age group ;-) But still no excuse for getting smashed. Jodie is a great competitor, and very strong. When I say strong, not in the negative sense, either. She uses her weight well and with accuracy. I stupidly pulled guard although I know she is a strong guard passer. So it wasn't too long before I paid the price ;-)

After that, we had a combined coloured belt women's division with 8 or 9 women. I drew Sunny, who is a purple belt. Not too long ago, she competed against Kyra at ADCC and lost on points. So I was quite happy to have a reasonably long fight with her, during which I didn't spend all my time on the bottom, and some of it was slow, intelligent grappling. I used open guard well. I survived her initial guard pull with instant triangle attempt and it was an enjoyable grapple before she eventually got my back and went for a lapel half nelson which I couldn't defend. She was clearly better than I, but I didn't mind, because I felt I rolled well.

The best part of the day was that I turned up not wanting to be there, and leaving with enthusiasm to go and do it again. Ironically, I got a silver medal for my crappy fight, and nothing for my good fight. Also ironically, I got my arse kicked in both fights, yet now I feel I'm happy to compete again.

efficiency and effectiveness in BJJ

There is a great post by Roy Harris on the MMA Underground Forum. It's titled "For Blue and Purple Belts...".

Roy talks about different body types and the need appropriate techniques. About efficiency and effectiveness, and what a BJJ student should focus on at different levels.

signed up

... for the GTA comp on Sunday.

Not sure why. So often I've said: No more competitions... and:  I hate grappling comps. But then why do I keep doing it? Well, one reason is that a bunch of guys from our school are going, some for the first time. If I go along to cheer them on, I may as well compete.

But I dunno what's wrong with me. I didn't just enter the geriatric female blue belt division for a cameo appearance (it should attract one or two entries), I actually entered the open coloured belt division as well. That will have several good purple belt ladies on top of several good blue belt ladies. I'm doomed!! Haha, seemed like a good idea to enter, but I suspect it'll be a smash-fest at my expense. Still, somehow that doesn't bother me this time. If I can do better than come last in a division of better, younger women, I will be happy.

I'll tell you Sunday night if it really was a good idea ;-)

sherdog wisdom

Sometimes, (among all the ahem.. opinionated B/S) on Sherdog's grappling forum, there are some excellent and thought-inspiring posts.

This one is from Gerbiljitsu:

There are many different tools used to increase performance. Goal setting, visualization, repetition, competition, and a variety of other things can be very helpful in skill gains. As you progress through your Jiu-Jitsu career, you will find that your understanding of grappling evolves and changes. You will view things differently as a black belt than you did as a white belt. This change in your views is very hard to explain, and often times can only be understood by someone who has made the journey. Even though I acknowledge this task to be very difficult, I will do my absolute best to explain to you my views of BJJ.

Let me start off by saying this; Technical fighters are the lowest level of trained fighter. To be technical means that you can regurgitate techniques upon request or when presented with a specific situation. This can be as simple as using the Toreando Pass (Bull Fighter Pass) when your opponent places his/her feet on your hips or something as complex as Cartwheel Pass when your opponent is in a seated position. The complexity of the move is not really important, but the mere act of viewing it as a move can lead to problems down the road.

I am NOT saying that being technical is a bad thing, I'm saying it should be a given. Think of each technique as a tool in your toolbox. As you acquire more tools you will be able to build nicer things. There will be some very important tools that every grappler needs (shrimping, bridging, ect) and some tools that make jobs easier (flying triangles). Not every tool is needed to build an awesome house, but some tools make it easier than others. I will however say this, if you are not practicing techniques and you find yourself in a situation that you need to use them (in a competition or a self defense situation) you will be the equivalent of a master carpenter who owns no tools. I dont care how talented of a carpenter you are, you're not going to build my house with your bare hands.

At this point you may be asking yourself “what is the next level of understanding” and the answer to that is conceptualization. Being a conceptual fighter/grappler means that you have progressed passed the “what” stage and moved onto the “why” stage. By understanding “why” you stack your opponent in an armbar you can help defend your arm in many different ways while avoiding a lot of the “tricky” things your opponent might try and distract you with.

This simple way of looking at things explains why many of the older BJJ black belts never named positions, submissions or transitions. Too many of our grappling forefather's side control consisted of 6 or 7 different positions (what I call Kesa Gatame, Scarf Hold, Belly Down Side Control, Reverse Sit and all the variations). Some of those old timers still shake their head at our younger generation's need to name everything.

By understanding why you are doing things it allows you to explore movements and defenses that fit your personal style. If your arms are longer than the average grappler than you may find through experience that you are more susceptible to some submissions than you are to others. This information is very important because it will allow you to assign value to each individual technique and how they apply to YOUR game (as opposed to how a particular technique fits into the general grappling community).

Conceptual understanding of techniques will also allow you to move onto the last level of understanding. Because understanding what your opponent is doing does not let you understand their next move, however understanding why your opponent is doing something often leads to being able to plan a response. The ability to plan a specific response to your opponents actions is paramount to strategy, and strategy is the last level of understanding. To formulate a proper strategy you must understand both the “what” (techniques) and the “why” (concepts). Understanding why your opponent is doing/performing a particular movement will lead you to predict techniques and formulate intelligent counters.

Technical grappling puts the focus on the individual performing the techniques (thus the person acting is usually the person winning). Conceptual understanding puts the focus on the technique itself, building a deeper understanding of ones own body and how it moves in space against other peoples bodies (think prioperception). Strategy allows you step beyond the bounds of your own body and focus on the movements, intention and objective of your opponents actions. When you understand your opponents goals you can account for them in your strategy.

For many of you, grappling with a game plan is very difficult. You enter a match with the best intentions. You plan on doing “X” but all of a sudden you're doing “Y” and your strategy falls apart. This can be due to a number of reasons, but the three most common are 1. Your opponent had a better strategy than you 2. Your opponent IS better than you or 3. You do not have a mastery of the two lower levels of understanding. In order for there to be mastery of Techniques and Concepts there will be very few times that you ask yourself “why” or “what” while grappling.

For example, if you just got swept and you say to yourself “what sweep was that” or “how did he do that” you have not progressed beyond the conceptual understanding stage (with a few exceptions). The only thing you should be thinking about is how to defend from that next position and continue to progress your strategy. The is no room in your brain for analysis of technique while grappling at the highest level...analysis of strategy yes, analysis of techniques no.

The biggest challenge in this journey of understanding is being real with yourself. You need to asses where you are in your learning cycle and set your goals based on your current understanding of our art. If you are a beginner than you need to focus on being a technical fighter. Memorize your moves, do countless repetitions and do your best to perform them while live grappling against resisting opponents.

If you are an intermediate then you need to look at the bigger picture. Instead of looking at individual techniques you need to look at the concepts that tie them all together. Suddenly guard passing is about getting around the legs and not applying any one specific technique. Most of your techniques will be condensed down to simple concepts. For a lack of a better explanation, sometimes a guard pass is just a guard pass (yes I stole that from Bruce Lee and his “a kick is a kick and a punch is a punch”).

If you are at the strategy stage of your understanding and your training has hit a wall, you might be TOO technical. If you are trying to pigeon hole every technique and make it work, even when it does not apply, this can lead to a lot of frustration and problems. And let's face it, if your opponent knows the same techniques as you, performing them can be VERY difficult, if not impossible. Think of trying to make someone laugh by telling them a joke that they have heard countless times before. Then the success/failure of the joke/technique is solely based on your delivery. This can become increasingly difficult as you continue training with the same people.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing, because in all honesty, it is what makes our sport so awesome. You can learn defenses to moves and progress through the sparring session with a back and forth manner. It also allows you to streamline your movements and to increase your economy of motion, making every movement use the least amount of energy while still obtaining the highest level of effectiveness.

Our sport has so much depth to it that you'll often find yourself switching between the levels of understanding. You will constantly be reassessing your techniques, your understanding of the movements surrounding them and your strategies based off of those assessments. Our sport is continually evolving and I suggest you just open your mind and allow yourself to move between the levels while continuing to train. By having the ability to move between the levels of understanding, it will ensure you constantly add to your game with new techniques, concepts and strategies. By adding to your “toolbox” you will insure your game always stay relevant to the current trends in competition and self defense, which at the end of the day, is our main goal. 

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general update

I didn't go to the Vics. But I will enter the GTA comp in May.

There are a couple of seminars coming up which I have booked in for. In early June, John Will is coming to our school. I'm also going to a Carlos Machado seminar in Geelong in May. I'm looking forward to both of those.

I just received Roy Dean's Brown Belt Requirements. I have only managed to watch the first half of the first DVD so far. Awesome. Notwithstanding the fact that I'm a long way from brown belt (hey, I think I'm a long way from purple!), it is incredibly interesting. As expected, he speaks more of concepts than techniques, and emphasis is on stringing attacks together. The points about creating and maintaining pressure alone are worth having.

I finally finished reading Fighter's Mind by Sam Sheridan. Lots of interesting stories and bits from interviews with all sorts of people from the BJJ and MMA scene. In the end, one of the take-home messages for me was that dedicated training is real and bears results. Talent doesn't. That ties right in with what Josh Waitzkin talks about in his book, and what the book "Talent is overrated" is all about. Interesting stuff.

Winter is coming to the great land down under. The other night, I had cold feet when starting a class, and it occurred to me that I'll soon be wearing my fancy scramble spats to no-gi sessions again :-) So in good time, I received my parcel from BJJHQ. They had the Scramble Be like Water Rashies on sale recently, and I grabbed one (seeing it has long sleeves). That was the first time I had ordered from the company. The parcel only took a few days to get here.

It is Anzac Day in Austalia today, and being a public holiday, it means we have no BJJ classes. But it also means a day off work. I hope the weather will improve, so I can indulge in my second passion, which is horse riding :-)

comps coming up

Two big competitions coming up in Melbourne soon:

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I'll go to the Aus Champ's. Not sure yet about the Vics....

why?

Why does it have to be that I roll like an old woman, and then behave like a #*@$(#&* girl???

(not the best session last night... grrrr)

Pretty, pretty please, can I have the ability to roll like a girl and then act like a mature woman? That'd come in really handy.

camp report

Finally, a chance to catch up and post a report on the AGIG camp which I went to on the 17th and 18th of March.

As with the first AGIG camp, Jess Fraser did a great job. It was well organised, there were great instructors, the program kept us busy and the food was good, too. The camp was hosted by Jodie and Deon, who own Perkins Jiu Jitsu in Ringwood (eastern side of Melbourne). Deon did a great job keeping things running, taking photos and reffing in grand style at the Sunday mini comp. Jodie looked after her kids, played hostess, took part in the seminar and comp, kept things running and still had time to be a good friend. An awesome woman!




Saturday:  we had Esther Tavares-Tutida for a couple of sessions. Lots of interesting techniques. Sadly, I missed the first half of the first session, as I was running late. Stupid me underestimated the time it would take to travel across Melbourne on a Saturday... Esther showed some interesting stuff, especially open guard sweeps. Unfortunately, I found it really hard to take in three variations of techniques in one gulp. I'm one of those people who need time for stuff to sink in and I need to rep it a few times.

Part of Saturday afternoon were rounds of free rolling. We certainly all did plenty of that :-)

Then we had Murray Ballenden in for a talk about health, eating, training, good posture and how it all relates and what we should consider if we want to live well and train well. I found that presentation extremly interesting and useful. I know I've made a lot of changes to my diet and other things since I started training. And I'm aware of areas where I need to do a lot more. He helped put it all together. I was happy since I'm obviously on the right track, but I sure need to do more. First and foremost, posture-related adjustments. But more in the food department, too...

In the evening, there was a bit of the competition on who could wear the most "offensive lycra". I thought I was doing really well in my Scramble spats, which I paired with my Honeybadger rashie. But that rainbow of colours was nothing, NOTHING compared to what some of the others wore. Think leopard pattern bodysuit under a lemon yellow set of skimpy bathers. Think a big lady with a black body suit and pink g-string bathers over the top. .... think iridescent coloured morph suit covering all including the head. Wow....

Anyway, after that, a couple of the little girls did a presentation and then most of them watched a movie. As I had no interest in the movie, but a uni assignment due, I settled down in my temporary bed on the mat with my trusty laptop and hammered away at the keyboard.

Sunday: Jess gave us a Yoga session. Very interesting. She tailored it to address some of the areas where BJJ is a bit one sided for our body. Ie: we did some stuff that opened the hips and stretched hip flexors. Unfortunately, I don't function well in the mornings at the best of time. I only slept moderately well, and I was a stiff as a brick and didn't feel human until after breakfast

Thiago Stefanutti did an outstanding session on Judo for BJJ. I loved his style of teaching. And I was lucky to be paired up with a young woman who is a Judo Brown Belt. So she was able to help me with my rather clumsy efforts at some of the throws. Actually, we did start with grip stripping and then did three lots of two throws. Each time, we learned one, and then another which fed from the defence to the first one. That was just outstanding. I skipped the randori after, as I still felt very stiff and tired.

The next section was with Fiona Muxlow. We had another good warm up, then did some standing pummeling and proceeded to takedown techniques from there. Same as Thiago, techniques were presented logically and with good explanations, and we had ample time to rep them out.

Last part of the day was the mini comp. We were allocated to teams, and the teams sent their membes out to fight others in the same division. So we had two big white belt divisions, and two small coloured belt ones. Two fights for everyone. My first fight was with Jodie, who absolutely destroyed me :-) I was actually really pissed off with myself, I was like a wet rag... My second fight was with Kirsty who hails from Sydney. I was getting a good flogging there, she was well ahead on point, but in the end, I rolled her when she attempted a choke from mount, and somehow ended up in halfguard top. As she was turning into me, I went for a D'Arce choke. I was getting really excited about pulling it off, when the bell rang. Oh well, I lost on points, but at least I felt I put up a fight. We had Thiago as ref, and it was nice that when he said to me "well done".

There were no awards for individual fighters, other than best takedown, best sub etc. And our team didn't win, so we missed out.

What I learned from that is not to be such a bloody woos, not to give up before the bell rings, that I can do ok even if my body feels like crap and that competing isn't THAT bad. :-)

I got home after 2.5 hours driving and pretty much fell out of the car. I just had enough energy to feed the cats and dog and check the horses, have a shower and have a feed before falling into bed.

What a weekend :-)

how I'll be spending my weekend

This is where I'll be...

Oh, and I'm starting to wear in my new Scramble gi. What a NICE piece of work. Yes, yes, I'll take it to the camp, of course.

back to uni and BJJ as sanity control

Oh, yes, back to uni, let the grind begin :-)

The nice thing is that I only do two subjects per semester now, and it's my last year. Yes, YES. Last year!! One more year of exams and assignments. Unless I decide to do honors... But this year will be full of fun and excitement, with lots of teamwork and a big software project. Of course, I'm working also. So there is never a dull moment.

On the mats, I'm cruising along. Good days, shit days, normal days all mix in. I still teach Wednesdays, and the more of that I do, the more I feel it's necessary for my own learning. However, I enjoy being a student most of the time.

We've recently had an influx of new people. In our small school, six new guys within a few short weeks does make itself felt. That means spending a fair bit of time taking newbies through basic stuff. I'm trying to figure what works best when explaining new things. Teaching is hard :-) Good teaching is very hard. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I really want to get things right. Not only because I know how hard it was when I started myself, but also as a matter of pride. Funny, even in classes I don't teach, I end up teaching...

I'm continuing to play around with deep half guard and back control. I tend to only go to closed guard and attacks from there when I feel pressurised or when, by mutual decision, we go hard. Armbars are definitely crystallizing out as preferred technique. Oh, and cross lapel chokes. Slowly, slowly, I'm starting to swap from choke to armbar to triangle and back. I need to work omoplata attempts in there as well. I also need to be more deliberate in planning the next move, so that the defence to one attack leads to a better opening for the next one.

Interestingly, I'm starting to have a bit of luck with getting mount lately.While that still feels a little alien, things are starting to happen there. I managed the first ever armbar from mount last night. OMG... I'm still prone to being rolled though. Side control still gives me trouble, I can't stop people from re-gaining half guard. On the other hand, I'm getting quite handy at taking the back, keeping the back and transitioning to side mount and back to the back.

We recently had a series of classes on head arm chokes, will all entries from side control, but variations depending on the bottom person's arm position. I liked the pressure used in thosed techniques, but at present my side control sucks and head/arm chokes are not my strong attack. So I'm filing these for future use. On the other hand, we've learned some more side control and bottom half guard escapes/sweeps. They are of immediate use :-)

I was talking to one of the guys after open mat last night. He said the first thing in his life is his family, the second thing BJJ, then his job and all else. He emphasised how much BJJ keeps him sane and how much he looked forward to the next session. Since starting BJJ, he has lost around 20kgs, and he feels much better. We agreed that BJJ is a serious addiction, and sometimes we pay the price in soreness and tiredness. But the payoffs are so worth it.

androiding...

Brave new world... Testing blogger on android :-)

grappler's friend

Meet my new friend:

This thing is great. It is a vast improvement over ice-cubes in a plastic bag. It works much better than a frozen gel-pack on places like elbows, feet, wrists etc. The gel pack is good for large flattish areas, but on joints, I find I need to bandage it down tight to get the contact I want.

The ice bag makes it much easier. I put it to good use on my dodgy right elbow this last week.

In Australia, it can be obtained from the Lecaronol website. They were very helpful.

back from holidays and all settled in...

I'm pleased that the almost 3kg I gained during my holiday (more lack of exercise than too much eating, cross my heart!) have been worked off again. That didn't take long, I was back to my usual weight within four days of coming home and training :-)

As much as I enjoyed the break and the different scenery, it was great to get home again. I was straight back to work on Monday morning, and two BJJ sessions on Monday evening. I missed my Wednesday lunchtime class due to a work meeting, but the evening class more than made up for it...

In all, during the week I had six BJJ session, which included one private. The latter was great, I had decided on DHG as the theme, and it was a very good session indeed. The other classes during the week focussed on guard passes (variations of the Sao Paulo pass) and a defense to the double-under pass. There was plenty of rolling, too.

My home school is quite small, as we are in a country town. So it was good to see that more guys are finally back from summer holidays and other lay-offs, and we have more bodies on the mat again. It was especially good to see Ben back on the mat. Not only is he the nicest guy, but rolling with him always expands my game. In addition, I found out that another purple belt who dropped in a few times in the past, has joined our ranks and he will be training with us regularly. I even had him for a partner on Saturday. Good times!

I'm really happy to be back and do battle with the rather competitive blues and whites we have. Guys, you are all good value :-)

There are comps coming up. Time to get organised. There is a small no-gi More Grappling comp in a fortnight. The Victorian Championships are in April some time and the first Grappling Tournament for 2012 (also in Melbourne) has just been announced for May 13. I suppose I better work out which ones I want to go to. Ha, if any... I'm still not too sure on that one.

Jess Fraser has organised another Girls in Gi Camp for March. A two day event this time! I'm already booked in as it was damn good value last time.

BJJ in Saigon

On the last day of my Vietnam trip, I had the chance to join the guys from Saigon BJJ for a class and some rolling. I had contacted Matt when I found out about the gym and he invited me to come and drop in on the Saturday afternoon.

BJJ is currently only available at three schools in Vietnam, two in Saigon and one in Hanoi. As far as I understand, they are all no-gi schools. Matt told me that they are looking at gi classes in the near future though.

Due to underestimating the Saigon traffic and the distance from the hotel to the fitness centre, and some problems in getting into the place, I was a bit late for the class part of the afternoon. However, I still had the chance to get in some reps of several techniques. Essentially, the class was about guard passes and knee ride. Not all new stuff to me, but knee ride isn't really part of my game, so it was good to work on that side of things.  This was followed by a bit of situational rolling to give people the chance to practice the techniques.

After the class, there was some rolling. I enjoyed a thorough butt-kicking from four of the guys :-) One particular roll I will remember for a long time. The guy tells me he's a bit rusty, and had several months lay-off due to an operation. Then he proceeded to demolish me by way of some of the most continuous, switching-sides, surf-the-wave type of knee rides I've ever encountered. Yeah, I did fend of a lot of subs. But I was forced to turtle several times just to escape the pressure. And no, I'm not a knee-ride woos, we have a couple of guys in our school who use it. However, this was out of the box... Still, good times :-)

Here are some pictures of the drilling part of the class:

Hehe, and they liked my BJJ Brotherhood rashie :-)

answer

So I've been back from my Vietnam trip for a week. But it's taken me this long to organise myself. I arrived in Tullamarine on Sunday morning after an overnighter and then drove home two hours. Then straight back to work on Monday. Somehow, my place is still an untidy mess :-)

On the positive side, I managed six training sessions this week. After all the genteel sightseeing, sitting around and eating in Vung Tau, this really was good. The nearly three kilograms I put on during my trip, I lost within four days after I returned home. My body has that nice worn (slightly trashed) feeling again. Life is almost back to normal...

Ok, now to the answer to what Vung Tau has in common with Rio.

It has a massive statue of Christ. It is actually bigger than the one in Rio (unless you count the pedestal it stands on). According to Wikipedia:
"It is 32 metres (105 ft) high, standing on a 4 metres (13 ft) high platform, for a 36 metres (118 ft) total monument height with two outstretched arms spanning 18.3 metres (60 ft). There is a 133-step staircase inside the statue."

As the statue is on top of a small mountain, there are quite a few steps on the way up. Someone mentioned about 400 (but don't quote me on that). We did go up inside it, and you end up standing inside the shoulders to look out. Looking down, on the gardens below:

You get a good view of the city of Vung Tau:

All the way up to the statue, and on top of the hill, there are nice gardens with small statues, potted flowers and ponds. Fantastic.

It appears that Vung Tau has a large Christian population. So there are several big churches and big statues all over the peninsula. The strong Buddhist tradition means that there are many beautiful pagodas and Buddha statues as well. From certain vantage points, you can see several large statues from both faiths on the hills at the same time.

We visited three pagodas while I was in Vung Tau. I was blown away by the architecture, the gardens and the artwork everywhere.

Vung Tau is a busy port city. I understand that about 200,000 people live there. It certainly has some pretty busy streets. Though of course, not as busy as Saigon. And let me tell you, the traffic in Vietnam is different to the traffic in Australia :-) Some cars, lots of taxis, loads of motorbikes and bikes. Everyone beeps all the time, signs and traffic lights are suggestions only and nobody on two wheels thinks twice about using the wrong side of the road. Roundabouts are fun! I stayed with friends. The get about on motorbikes, so I had lots of rides on the back, which gave me the opportunity to sample the traffic from close up.

I ate lots of pho and bun and other noodles, but also sampled fantastic seafood and some of the awesome cakes and bread (which, like a lot of the architecture, stem from the time when the French were in Vietnam). I also love the Vietnamese style coffee. Coffee drinking is a bit of a pastime in Vietnam. Coffee can be had in upmarket seaside coffee shops or in hammocks strung between trees by the roadside.

So yeah, it was an interesting week. And thanks to my friends Tuyet and David, I saw a lot of different things and had a great time.

quiz

What does Vung Tau (Vietnam) have in common with Rio?

Aside from hot, humid weather :-)

Vietnam holiday

I'm currently visiting friends in Vung Tau, Vietnam. I'm missing my grappling :-)

However, I'll probably be visiting Saigon BJJ on Saturday afternoon before I fly back. I'll report back...