January

January has been a blur as we arrived back in HCMC from our travels with the family, started school, said goodbye to the family, ran a race, had a friend visit and it's now the end of the month! 

Saying goodbye to the family was horrible! Thank goodness we didn't have to do it all in one go. The Goldstones came back to HCMC for a few days before flying out, so we got to spend a bit more time with them. Then, the Dibbens arrived back from Cambodia and we spent some time with them before saying goodbye. Luckily there is Skype and Whatsapp making the world a little bit smaller, so keeping in touch is a little bit easier. Thanks to the family for such an awesome time! We loved having you here and it was so great to show you a little bit of our (adopted) part of the world.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset on our last night with the Goldstones.

Our farewell dinner with the Goldstones at Khoi Thom (an awesome Mexican restaurant).

Our farewell dinner with The Dibben's at Lu Cuchina (amazing pizza and South African wine!).

We had the very bad idea of heading back to Snowman, a beer club near our house. They have a great happy hour which is always lots of fun! Our heads don't always agree the next day.

Ross, Michael, Duyen and Craig

Ross and Michael

Last year, we entered a race called The HCMC Run or - Conquer the Bridge. This is only the second time that this race has been organised, and the first time that they've had a half marathon. Ross, Craig, and Michael all entered the half marathon and Mel entered the 10km. Ross trained really hard and did so well! Mel was plagued with illness the week of the race but still ran and managed to come in under the time that she expected. It was a really great morning and it has really inspired us to do some more running and to enter more races!

Our race gear all ready to go!

Ross won a voucher for Chucks, a delicious burger joint in town. We had never been to Chuck's, but had seen photos and heard stories about how amazing the burgers are. So on the Monday after our run, we thought that we deserved a break from gym and we went out for burgers. They were so delicious and they definitely lived up to the hype!

Mel's friend Kate has decided to take the year off and do some travelling around South East Asia. Her first stop was with us before she goes on to do some more travelling. It's always so great having familiar faces around!

I won a voucher for a big cheese burger from Black Cat. The whole burger weighs 1.5kgs!! The burger was delicious and SO huge!

On Saturday morning, we woke up at 5am to beat the traffic and go for a run! By 11 o'clock we were ready for some lunch so we headed into Phu My Hung in search of something delicious! We've recently been introduced to a delicious Vietnamese meal called "bun tit nugong" which is vermicelli noodles topped with grilled pork and fresh leaves like mint and basil. You pour fish sauce over it and it is amazing! After lunch we went in search of a coffee but decided on mango and pineapple smoothies instead!