Sports Events in Ho Chi Minh City

If you love golf, you have to visit the Song Be Golf Resort. The resort is beautiful and very first class. The course is an 18 hole course spread out over some of the most beautiful Vietnamese land complete with beautiful palm trees, water bunkers filled with lotus blossoms, sand traps too numerous to count, and lush green fairways. It is about a 45 min taxi ride from Saigon. The resort comes complete with a driving range, restaurant (by the way the breakfast pho and congee were excellent), pro shop, pool, locker rooms, rooms to stay at and babysitting services.

If you aren't too good at golf, don't fret. The range caters to all comers. You will be required to where a shirt with a collar and golf shoes. Golf shoes and clubs are available for rent. You are also required to have a caddy to accompany you which turns out to be such an invaluable source however their skill varies. If you go ask for my caddie An, she was awesome! Golf carts are also available for rent.

The fee for 9 holes and the caddy fee turns out to be about $45 US on a weekday. Which for the beauty and high class of this golf club is a steal. I highly recommend that if you are going to play the course to play early in the day to beat the smoldering heat. The first tee time is 5am. Also if you are going to play, the front 9 are a much visably prettier course, however the back nine are tougher. The course is not open on Mondays for maintenance.

Equipment: Shirt with a collar (can be sleeveless for ladies) recommend because of the head to get
climacontrol gear from adidas or the similar gear from other companies
Golf shoes (can be rented for $5 if necessary, largest man shoe size is 12)
Golf clubs (can be rented for $15) with bag
Golf tees
Golf balls (tees and balls are available in pro shop if needed)
Golf towel (to wipe your face in the smoldering heat)
A good sense of humor (remember you are golfing and not at work)

Having a large expat community Golf is pretty important here, there are to places that are the home of glof here;
No5 Bar, 43 Mac Dinh Chi, District 1 - Have a chat with Hienz
or
Storm P, 28 Cao Ba Quat - Have a chat with Klaus

If you think that Saigon is too hectic, you should take a trip to Mui Ne, approximately 150km (i.e. 4 hours by bus) away from the city. Open buses run regularly every morning. Mui Ne is a wonderful place to enjoy beach life: It's got a lot of resorts directly at the beach, you can swim, dive or just get your skin tanned. For some action, rent a motobike or a car with driver and go to the famous sanddunes. Lots of small children will await you and offer you to go sliding with them. For a small fee, you can rent a bobsleigh-like thing and slide down the dunes. It's fun if you manage to actually slide - the sand is too blunt, so it's not easy. Apart from these sports activities, you should explore the dunes yourself. They are wonderful in the early evening light. Not far away, there's also a little canyon (Red Canyon), that reminded me of the Grand Canyon, although it's only some 100m long and maybe 15m high. But the colour is the same!
When going back to your resort, try to reach Mui Ne's little harbor at sunset. I promise you that it's a view you will never forget!

Equipment: swimsuit and hiking boots

The 22nd Annual SEA Games were in full swing while we were in Saigon. SEA = South East Asia. The actual venues were in Hanoi, but you could have fooled us from all the excitement there was going on around us!