Blog – Jan 6 – Room awesome

Our day started off as the past couple have, with breakfast in our specially prepared room and the walk to training – battling traffic along the way.  It was sunny with blue skies for the first time since we arrived, but still not unbearably hot.

1-2-3-CHEESE...

We had a solid training session that was longer today as we didn’t have a game this afternoon, with a competitive scrimmage for the last hour or so.  We’ve continued to work on our focus areas from the last training block and some improvements from last 2 matches.  Coach Manser stepped in and showed how gracefully she’s aged – our hitters feasting on her butter.  It was a really warm day in the stadium and co-captain Tara West seems to think we’re in a humidity chamber finding out not long ago she suffers from the condition hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)…. luckily we stocked up on towels tonight!

Again we hit the pool after our session for some active recovery and given it was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City we thought we should take a couple of snaps to keep, so Rhi went up to a ‘local’ Vietnamese family who were at the pool and asked very slowly with hand movements included “Please take photo??”.  The young man then replied with “Yeah no worries mate – are you guys Aussie?  I’m from Brisbane” and proceeded to take a team photo – 1, 2, 3 CHEESE!!

Welcome to Dong Nai

This afternoon we moved from HCMC to the Dong Nai Province and settled into our new luxurious suites in a hotel that apparently opened only a few days ago, being greeted with flowers for each player and a tv cameraman filming our every move.  We then met our liason officers for the tournament who introduced themselves as Venus and Pluto (we’re semi wondering whether Mars and Uranus are going to show up)……

 

Billy is being interviewed by the national broadcaster.

We were wanting to go for a wander around the area this afternoon but had a lot of trouble leaving the hotel without an army of Vietnamese bodyguards concerned for our safety.  A few of us went for a coffee to the famous local cafe and were treated to some very strong short blacks with condensed milk – delicious.

The dinning hall

Dinner was followed by a quick trip to the shops to stock up on some essentials and the aforementioned sweat towels, and we are now taking advantage of an early night in our extremely comfortable hotel rooms before our first training at the tournament venue tomorrow morning.  Night night, Rhi & Liv (aka Wi and Wiv).