S.E.A. Games

Near the city of Hue, on the Perfume river, we toured a couple monasteries and the tombs of dead kings, but the real excitement for everyone else was the S.E.A. Games!

This year Vietnam hosted the SEA games. This is an Olympic style event, but not dominated by a greco-western motif. They play a lot of cool local games I’ve never seen before.

Snooker is really big, so is table tennis and chess. They have several fin swimming events: two fin, one big fin (mermaid suits), snorkel and scuba. They also play all kinds of kick-volleyball variants with the woven wicker ball and shuttlecock.

One day is Saigon we saw a group of 7 girls and guys standing in a circle playing this hacky sack type game with a shuttle cock. The birdy fell behind them and they each did did a no-look kick with their heel, back over their head to the next person. The thing never hit the ground and they would whack it twenty feet up into the air. In the SEA games, shuttlecock is played by mixed gender teams over a net. Nearly every kick is a full stretch, above the head whack and spikes are whirling cartwheels of doom.

A great variety of martial arts are represented: Penjack Silat, Taekwondo, Karatedo, Wushu, Jujitsu, etc.. Sanshao, Thai, and Western boxing are there too. Sanshao is full contact Chinese kick boxing with stand up grappling and throwing allowed.

These are all entertaining, but it was clear that no one in Vietnam cared about anything but the soccer. When the football was on, cafes were packed and squares got filled with motobikes watching jumbotrons. People who had to travel, did so with radios glued to one ear. Vietnam beat Malaysia to get to the final and the streets went absolutely crazy, you couldn’t go anywhere for the remainder of the night.

We ended up buying handmade Vietnamese flag stickers from street kids, just because of the positive reaction it got us. If you support the team, you’re good people. Go Vietnam!

One evening we gradually became aware that the final football match was taking place. All around us we could hear women screaming ecstatically every time the ball changed possession. We finally turned on the game in our hotel room when the sounds from the street got positively orgasmic. The Thais were up one nothing and the game was coming to a close.

In the last seconds the Vietnamese tied it up and the country exploded. The TV kept switching cameras trying to find one that could keep a picture in frame as the stadium rocked up and down with half a million jumping fans. The streets roared with horns and voices.

The noises outside got even more frantic as the overtime progressed. Suddenly, the Thais got off a brilliant kick and won the game. The entire stadium froze. Not one person was moving, maybe even breathing. Except the goalie, who took a moment to realize what had happened, then tried to claw his way through the soccer pitch to his grave. The Thais looked scared. Mandy and I noticed that not only was the TV silent, but outside was too. You couldn’t hear one motobike, even one voice or beeping horn. This is impossible in urban Vietnam. Even the dogs didn’t dare bark. Slowly the people on the television began to cry and call their friends. I was almost scared to go out. Its was bad enough when they won. The sports announcers could barely do their job through the tears. The national depression lasted for days.

Some photos of Hue.

After many miles we found our way to Halong Bay and would’ve caught up on sleep if we could keep our eyes closed with all the eye popping scenery…