Colors of South Africa 2010

We've had a blast in South Africa. Almost everything has exceeded expectations. The roads are drivable and high quality, Kruger national park has animals that you can see on your own self guided tour, the cape of good hope is stunning.

Stunning views on the Cape Penninsula

A mission we began on this trip was to get a picture of us with one of every fan from every team. See the gallery below. We have pictures of all but one team- email me if you can guess the missing team and you'll be rewarded with ten points.

Unfortunately I have not blogged sufficiently during this period. We were in South Africa traveling with a friend of mine who works at the WashingtonPost, however, and who has helped start there blog- Please feel free to back read all of his posts to get an idea of what we were up to!!

http://wapocup.posterous.com/tag/mattbrooks

Italy Corner Kick Right in Front of us

USA USA DEUTSCHLAND

Woo! The party is raging in SA. I will have to post more pictures in the coming weeks as for now we are constantly on the go. Had a great time at the USA England match in a central square in Cape Town. Happy to get a fluke goal and a 1-1 USA England Tie. And no english hooligans later, just arrogant comments.

Had a spectacular drive down to the cape fo good hope along the coast yesterday. Unbelievably beautiful. Following which we headed to the Pauler brewery (a German brewery based in Munich) for the Serbia and Germany matches. Serbia lost unfortunately (Jel (girlfriend) is serbian), but we quickly rebounded with a live band and signing and dancing. The bar went nuts when I had Jel switch from a serbia jersey into a Germany one. In fact, we were soo animated that all of the german national network television cameras came to our half of the bar to film the pre-party. Deutsche Familie- habt ihr mich im fernsehen gesehen? ARD, RTL und RTLII?

Germany pummeled Australia 4-0 (sorry Barto) to the ecstasy of the hundreds of germans packing the bar. I was happy to see some goals.

As far as my allegiances, I stand by the US all the way, but can't help but have loyalties to the Germans as well. I am hoping that those two won't have to play each other..

By Request, the games I am slated to see next are:
Italy Paraguay (cape town) (GOOOO PARAGUAY)
USA- SLOVENIA (Johannesburg) (USA USA USA)
Italy- New Zealand (nelspruit) (GOOO NEW ZEALAND)
Spain Honduras (Johannesburg) (VIVA HONDURAS)

West of SouthEast Asia...

Across a massive ocean is South Africa, home of the 2010 WorldCup. I had made arrangements to attend the WorldCup quite sometime ago, having made a vow to try and get to every WorldCup for the rest of my life. Some 30 hours in transit from Bangkok found us here, in beautiful CapeTown. Having concluded the temporary job I was doing in Bangkok, we've come halfway around the world to meet some friends and celebrate sport and humanity.

The atmosphere here in Cape Town is unreal. South Africans are trying to unite and soccer/football is helping. Everyone is excited- locals and the countless foreigners from all corners of the world that are here. The opening concert on the streets of CapeTown was awesome. Dancing and Singing and celebrating with tens of thousands of South Africans. We are trying to get a picture with a fan from every team at the worldcup! So far we have most of the African Nations, but not all. We'll see how far we get- we know that places like North Korea may be the hardest!!

The first day of matches was electric. After a morning of climbing table mountain, we were treated to stunning views of the cape of good hope, the city of capetown and the cape flats. We could hear the vuvuzelas all the way up the mountain!!

Later, when South Africa scored the first goal of the 2010 worldcup to take the lead over Mexico, the city and the nation exploded. Bafana Bafana! The South African team ended up with a tie, but the country was proud beyond belief. We walked to the stadium in Cape Town for the France Uruguay match amidst a massive celebration- the game was great- highlighted by some Irish Fans who sat behind us and heckled the French Team and Henry (the French "cheated" to get into the world cup). After the match the whole of capetown was paralyzed by street parties. We found a bar with a balcony and watched the chaos on the streets below as everyone toasted the start of a new WorldCup.

I will write some more on the legacy of apartheid and the other cultural stuff we've been looking at at some point but for now I am off to the fan park where I can watch the US-England match with 25,000+ others!

Vietnam

Last weekend we hopped over to Vietnam for 3 days, empowered by another Thai holiday! We spent time in magnificent Halong Bay on an overnight boat trip, and a few days in Hanoi. Vietnam appears to be halfway between Thailand and Laos in terms of development.

Halong Bay

The people are considerably more curt and less smiley than in Thailand, which I kind of appreciated, until I got punched by a cab driver.

We were leaving the temple of literature, a very cool temple dedicated to knowledge and education, and called a friend to consult on the appropriate taxi fare back to his side of town. He told us a price and what cabs to get into and we naturally hopped into the first car without considering what was written on the side. Well, when the fare had exceeded what we were told to pay within the first 2 blocks we asked to be let out, which the driver refused. He stopped after loud protests from us somewhere on block 3. When we didn’t pay he continued to shout “Money” after us, but then surprised us both by leaving the car in traffic and running after us only to curse at us in Vietnamese. It was somewhere there that he started jabbing me with his fist. Luckily I have been taking Muay Thai lessons in Thailand and was able to paralyze him with a nifty trick using a lonely planet guidebook and my big toe. No, truth be told he left after an awkward 2 minute standoff where we just watched him curse at us and jab me in the stomach (note to others reading this- punching me in the stomach is not an effective way to get me to give you something).

Temple of Literature Courtyard

I only relay the story here for humor, otherwise everything in Vietnam was splendid, including the delicious food (the French influence in the area is not without its merits). I love Vietnamese food and really enjoyed our quick trip.