Brazil vs Chile

Being that penalty kick striker must be the world's most thankless & dreadful job! The next day, nobody remembers the perfect kick, but even years later, the fans will still remember that miss which caused their team to be thrown out of a World Cup they could've potentially won. Can't begin to imagine the nerves those men must need to control!

Double decker

While in Mumbai, we went to a restaurant at Bandra Kurla Complex's Maker Maxity where I noticed this art installation by artist Sudarshan Shetty. Perhaps it was nostalgia, perhaps it was pride in my city....that made me really like this homage to the good old B.E.S.T. double decker. Surely it's going to be a thing of the past pretty soon, but I have great memories of having travelled on the front row on the top deck with the wind blowing in my face (yes, now it does seem kind of reckless of the authorities that kids were allowed to sit there with their heads sticking out of the front window).

Hue, Vietnam

Continuing from my previous post....

While Hoi An was unabashedly touristic, Hue surprisingly was very local & small-town Vietnam. And still had incredible anount of history & culture in it. Sadly, we didn't get enough time in Hue on this trip...we need to visit this place one more time.

Danang, Vietnam

We went to Danang in central Vietnam for a bankers club event last week. It's a gorgeous, sunny place which is being promoted by the Vietnam government as the "next Phuket" and in the spirit of tourist promotion they played excellent & lavish hosts to us. 

We also spent a day in the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Hoi An. What a lovely place. I loved it and cringed at it at the same time. The 15th century town, then a vibrant port developed by the expat Chinese & Japanese merchant communities in Vietnam, has some stunningly old architecture & the derelict state of those buildings lends it an old world quaintness. It has sadly become such a tourist ghetto now...there are these beautiful antique shophouses but they sell Prada hand-bag knock offs and mass produced Vietnamese art knock offs. I wish there was some deliberation on what establishments are aligned in a tasteful manner to a town so rich in heritage. It's a must-see town nevertheless. Add that to your travel list please!