Tintin in Hanoi

I was in Hanoi this week and it was one busy busy week. We landed a day after the general elections were over so the roads still had the red banners etc. Whoever thought Vietnam is a democracy can change their opinion, it is a complete communist dominated country!

There are too many motorbikes here in this country. Percentage wise I think this city would beat any Indian city on the number of two-wheelers. Traffic is worse than India and the streets are narrow streets with vehicles parked all over the place.

A typical shop with everything displayed outside the shop into the road


The Vietnamese coffee and tea are very famous and people keep drinking them all the time. Their special coffee is their version of our filter coffee.


This is Cha Ca (Shaaa Ka). Its one of the best South East Asian dish I have ever had. Its fish fry with herbs that you can fry right on your table. It is to be taken with Rice noodles. And I can tell you it tastes like heaven. Yumm...
There is only one restaurant in Hanoi which serves this and foreigners find their way to this restaurant which is located somewhere inside a maze of streets and lanes stuffed with shops and two-wheelers.

It was a bit more peaceful near the place where we stayed.

Oh ya people drive on the right side of the road here. The city has couple of water-bodies inside it. Hoan Kiem lake is bang in the middle of the city and there are nice jogging tracks around it. The west lake is another lake which is a bit away from the city centre.

French architecture from its colonial past is something which you cannot miss in this city. They still have a good relationship with France. This is a arch which welcomes everyone to the "International city of Hanoi".

If you are wondering why "Tintin", its like this. I met this guy in the street who accosted me for selling novels. He first asked me if I want books, next question was "Do you want Marijuana". Thats when I looked at him more carefully and he resembled one of the chinese characters I have seen in Tintin comics, wearing a long t-shirt and shorts. The rest is left to your imagination.

Freekicker - For the football fan

I have started a new blog on Football called

Freekicker

It is for those people who would like to read more about football, about the European leagues and some of the other footballing news that I follow, namely the Asian and South American! But the non-European news would be considerable less.

And also this is a warning to all the non-Arsenal fans as my blog will be a very pro-Arsenal blog. Please excuse me for that.

And for a change I am using Wordpress and I like it already.

so till then bye

Merdeka Square outing

I was forced to go along with a friend of mine to see the Malaysian History Museum in Merdeka Square. Merdeka Square is the most historical part of KL city.

There is this flag pole which is 95 metres tall and is one of the tallest flagpoles in the world!!! Some people here told me it "is" the tallest flagpole in the world, but I am not very sure about it.
There are some beautiful buildings built by the British that make this place look really old and good.

The highlight of the afternoon was the visit to the Musuem. To be fair to the Malaysians they have a short history compared to say countries like China or India. But I dont think they are managing it properly. The musuem is small but it is shabby in organisation. There were hardly any people on a Saturday!!!

The tiled roof on the left is the Royal Selangor club. These pics are taken from inside the museum and from my 6300!

Best & Worst of EPL 2006-07 - 2

Henrik Larsson – Man U

This was one of the smartest transfers that Ferguson got in the mid season. Man U was going short on striking force and he got the brilliant Swede to play for Man U for 3 months and he did score goals and kept the momentum going for Man U. Fergie would have loved him to stay longer till the end of season but the cameo that Larsson played for Man U was another smart move for Man U.

The Flops

Shevchenko - Chelsea

If there was one signing which made news at the beginning of the year, then this was the one. This is the story of how a hugely successful player in Europe can go down in form in the EPL. His loss in form was not helped by loss in confidence and also loss in solidarity from the dressing room. And it also did not help when your strike partner goes on to score goals by the dozens in the same year. His pound per goal ratio must have been the worst if there was a statistic like that.

Baptista - Arsenal

This was a deal which was not by design but in exchange for Reyes going to Real. If ever there was a flop this year after Shevchenko in Chelsea, then this has to be it. He tried hard to score, to beat defenders, but either shot it wide or got dis-possessed. He is better off in Spain or wherever he wants to go. As an Arsenal fan, i dont think he has the quality to be Gunner. Having said that, he was the architect of that 6-2 drubbing we gave to Liverpool at Anfield.

And just before I leave, thought I would share with you this piece of info. All the stats that are thrown up on TV during the football match, like the total distance run by each player, total completed passes by each player etc etc, this is done by a company called

OptaSportsData

They do for Sky, ESPN and the rest

Best & Worst of the EPL 2006-07 - 1

This year was probably one of the closest race in the EPL title. There was no team to give Chelsea a challenge in the last two seasons and they won with a few games to spare in the last two years. But this year Man U were determined to stamp their authority and they gave Chelsea a fight for all the roubles that were converted to pounds in Stamford Bridge. It was a race every weekend and Man U deserved to win for keeping their nose in front for most of the weekends.

This was also a season of injuries for the top 3 of the 4 clubs. I will leave Liverpool out of this as they did not have any major injury worries. Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal had injuries throughout the season and I should say that the team which coped with this best was Man U. And Man U also deserve to win for the attractive football they played and the sheer number of goals(83 with 2 games left) they scored this season. Before this year only thrice has any team scored 85 + goals in a season - Arsenal twice and Man U once. Talking of goals another interesting stat is that Liverpool is so strong at home that they have conceded only 5 at Anfield in 18 games. The next best is 10 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

# Best Signings of the Year

1. Berbatov - Tottenham
Well he has been a class apart for the Spurs. He looks very laidback but holds the ball for Keane or Defoe to make the run so that he can give that killing pass. And it has not just been this feeding that he has done all season, he has been the score sheet as well on 22 occasions this year and is their top-scorer. Man U is interested in him for the next year but the Bulgarian doesnt seem to be going anywhere.

2. Dirk Kuyt - Liverpool
Again a classy forward who will do all the hardwork from mid-field to set up the goals. He has himself found the net 13 times this year and is the second top scorer for Liverpool after Crouch. He has been the preferred partner to both Crouch and Bellamy and is as genuine a Dutchman as Bergkamp.

3. Carlos Tevez - West Ham Utd
When this news was announced at the start of the Premiership season, it was the signing of the year along with Mascherano to West Ham. But Alan Pardew hardly played these players in the way that suited them the most. But towards the end of the season, come what may in Old Trafford this weekend, Tevez has been a class act in the last few weekends for getting West Ham this close to survival in the Premiership. His free kicks like the one below have been classic and so has his aggresion. If West Ham stay up this year, they owe a lot to Tevez.

Eye On Malaysia