Di Bao! Vietnam Takes on Thailand for the ASEAN CUP Championship!

In this exciting episode of the Seven Million Bikes podcast, Adrie and I share our first-ever ride on the long-awaited Saigon Metro, a significant infrastructure development in Vietnam. 

We then dive into the electrifying atmosphere of watching the final football match between Vietnam and Thailand in the ASEAN Football Cup. 

As Vietnam secures a dramatic win, the episode captures the ensuing Đi bão celebration, illustrating the incredible national pride and festive chaos that envelops the city.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:10 Riding the Saigon Metro for the First Time
02:14 Vietnam's Football Fever
03:49 Exploring the City and Finding a Place to Watch the Game
11:09 The Thrilling Football Match
21:29 Celebrating Vietnam's Victory
21:57 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

0:01

think probably everyone's going to the city for the football.

Niall: 0:03

We have a really extra special episode for you and I'm so excited. There's two main things in this episode. First of all we are about to ride the Saigon Metro for the first ever time.

Adrie: 0:22

this was supposed to open in 2018, coincidentally is the same time that Vietnam last won the ASEAN Football Cup. And tonight we're heading to watch the final with Thailand. When Vietnam wins anything the whole city goes absolutely crazy.

Niall: 0:46

this video of a Vietnam podcast with me your host Niall Mackay and my beautiful wife Adrie. We have a really extra special episode for you and I'm so excited. So there's two main things in this episode today. First of all we are about to ride the Saigon Metro for the first ever time. It's been open for a few days but we've been away so we're super excited. This was first due open in 2018 and we have just been watching it getting built since we came here in 2016. The line that we're going to get on, we used to watch that line all the time and it just seemed like nothing was happening for the longest time. It's finally happening and so we're going to get on the Metro tonight and take it into town. Apparently, it's going to be great. It cost over two billion US dollars, which is crazy. Massive, delays, massive problems with funding, but it's really exciting. It's here now because if you don't know already, this is Seven Million Bikes podcast, Vietnam podcast made by Seven Million Bikes podcast. I came up with that name in 2019 because I read in the news that day that there was 7. 4 million motorbikes. in Saigon. There is now estimated to be between eight to nine million motorbikes and 90 percent of all traffic is motorbike traffic. So this metro is significant in terms of infrastructure in Saigon, but massively going to make a difference to the traffic and the pollution and hopefully reduce the amount of deaths as well. So that's the first thing that we're really excited about. Adriea, you want to tell us what is the other thing we're really excited about?

Adrie: 2:14

Yeah, what caught me there when you just said that this was supposed to open in 2018, coincidentally is the same time that Vietnam last won the ASEAN Football Cup. And tonight we're heading to watch the final with Thailand, the second game of a series of two. If they win tonight, they win for 2020, I guess 2024, right? Even though it's 2025.

Niall: 2:38

I don't know, it started in 2024. I assume it's a 2024 cup.

Adrie: 2:41

Yeah. And, if you are not familiar, when Vietnam wins, anything soccer related, does well, wins a game, does well, whatever, the whole city goes absolutely crazy. The whole country goes crazy. Vietnam comes out in full force with pots, pans, anything they can make noise on. They get on their bikes. They are dressed all in red with. Vietnam pride is unlike anything you've ever seen. So it's called Debao, which is I think means the storm. So we're really hoping that it's gonna come out tonight and it probably will come regardless, no matter if Vietnam wins or loses. Cause the, everyone will be pretty happy that they got this far in the championship anyway. So we're looking forward to that.

Niall: 3:23

Can't wait. And they're up 2 1 from the first leg. The first leg was incredible and they had Debao. after they won that, we didn't go out and see it, but we saw pictures the next day. Saigon just went absolutely crazy, and I'm assuming Hanoi and everywhere else as well. So whether they win or lose tonight, I have a feeling the debau is gonna happen, cause when I talked to Nguyen and other people, they said the Vietnamese people just love making noise. So hopefully that's going to happen tonight. Win, lose, or draw, but hopefully they win. So let's go check out the Metro for the first time. It's free right now, but I can't wait. We're going to check that out, get it into District 1, and then we're going to go find somewhere to watch the Vietnam game, and hopefully join in the D Bal afterwards. So let's go.

7:32

It's raining so hard. I got a text. My God, it's so busy. He told us to move to the front but now we're gonna sit. Yeah. I don't ride. Probably. believe we're on a metal bike. We failed miserably. And, tried to find somewhere around the gully bar area, but we couldn't find anywhere. So now we're back on Walking Street, where there is a small crowd. We're gonna go see how big the screen is. If it's a tiny screen, then we might not bother. But let's see what's happening. but Vietnam are already winning 1 0, Vietnam voting. We can hear folks cheering. There's a big crowd up here. So we're gonna go and see what's happening up one tiny screen. Look, it's the hotel. tiny screen that you can barely see. I guess we're gonna go try and find somewhere to watch this, probably. O'Brien's, an Irish bar right in the heart of the city. We've been here just once or twice before. It's a cool little bar. It has the game on, and it has people watching, which is quite crucial because we saw one kind of fancy bar with, just two people watching the game, and it didn't look like much of an atmosphere. Then we tried another bar, and they were full, so they wouldn't let us in. not that they wouldn't let us in, it was just full. Then we went to another bar, and that didn't have the games on the TV. And the staff were watching it on their phones, so that didn't help. So eventually we've just set out for an Irish bar in the heart of D1. We're gonna watch the game till halftime, have a quick beer, and then we'll try and find somewhere with Vietnamese people watching the game. And we cannot wait to D Battle across Vietnam for a date. I stopped recording in Thailand, I'm just going to make it 1 1, game on now! it's now 3 2 on aggregate, and, shit, this could be a really good game. So let's see what happens. the super dramatic end of the game. Thailand nearly had a VAR check. It looked like a penalty to me, but I wasn't paying that much attention, I was just watching it on my phone. It wasn't the three minutes left of normal time, but there's probably going to be quite a lot of injury time. But we're here now. Back where we started in the thick of it. So many people watching on their phone. It bounced off the ground and into the bar. Oh my god. So close to scoring there. They hit the crossbar. The ball bounced down. That looked like it almost went in. That reminded me of Frank Lampard against Jim Rennie. If you know what I'm talking about. Oh my god. On the line as well. That was on the line. This is nuts. We're in injury time now. Oh my god, plus 15 minutes. We got another one. It took another 15 minutes to go. Just been announced 15 minutes of injury time.

Niall: 20:53

We just gonna see out this injury time. It's all Thailand right now, they just hit the crossbar, like I said, that was as close as you can get. Holy shit. I hope more than anything we win just to see how crazy the Vietnamese people and Saigon people are going to go. You can hear already the excitement and how nuts it is. This place is about to take off and you don't even know what's going to happen. 12 minutes? Oh, no! He got kicked or something.

Adrie: 21:27

Did that go?

Niall: 21:29

No. I don't think so. It's about to get more fighting. All the goalkeepers down. I know. Yeah, I'm Five minutes left. Two minutes. Three minutes? Two and a half? Two and a half. Two and a half. Come on Vietnam! Ninety seconds left. Fifteen minutes of injury time. I've never seen fifteen minutes of injury time in all my life watching football. Oh, it's happening. Vietnam have a free kick deep in Thailand's half. And they are rightly so taking their sweet ass time to take this free kick. No rush at all. Player takes a yellow card. Who cares? No yellow card. No, but he's taking a yellow card just for the wasting time. You're like, fuck it. Oh, Vietnam. Yeah, he's fuck it. I'll take a yellow card. There's 90 seconds left. Huang Hai. All right, they're taking a short re kick. Waste some time, get it in the corner, Vietnam. That's it. It's all right, it's all right. They're still boxed in. Oh, Vietnam have won it back, yes! Shit! What have you done now? Oh, we're at, we're finished. We're at full time, so we'll just wait. Do they add extra time? Yeah, they can add extra time. yeah. We're not at full time Surely nearly be over now. It's gone eerily quiet. Why is it gone so quiet? Surely full time now. The clock is still going. Still going. It's like at 1. 07 almost. 7? The Thailand goalkeeper's up. Nobody in goal for Thailand right now. Goal! Goal! Woo! Woo! Yes! Goal from the halfway line. What a goal! That's so difficult, even into an empty goal, to get it that accurate. Everyone's leaving already. Vietnam is about to kick off. I was recording that when it popped up. OMG. This is why we came out. This is what we were hoping. In Vietnam we're going to win. And we get a full Đi bão. Which as I said translates to The Storm.

25:57

It's crazy now. The people in their first round were like, what the fuck? It's about to get even crazier. This is what we were hoping would happen. The foreigners and me taking videos and pictures. Thank you Don't forget like, subscribe, leave me a comment, tell me what you think of Đi bão. This is exactly what we wanted to happen, and it happened. Vietnam won, Vietnam Vô địch. This country is amazing, this city is amazing. If you haven't visited yet, come visit. If you have, you know how amazing it is. This is just incredible. I'm gonna go enjoy the Đi bão. Thanks for tuning in to A Vietnam Podcast, Vietnam Vô địch. Let's go! Vietnam Vô địch.

Guest: 26:49

You happy? very happy! Why? What happened though? Why are you so happy? Vietnam is the best! Vietnam is the best!

Niall: 27:01

Vietnam,

Guest: 27:02

very good. I like it. Everyone, Thank you. Okay, bye!

Niall: 27:11

what just happened? what happening? yeah. Yeah, Vietnam win Thailand in soccer. Yeah. Yeah. And so why, what's happening right now? they, go to, storm. The storm, right? Yeah, storm. Di Bao? Yeah, Di Bao.

Guest: 27:29

Di Bao.

Niall: 27:30

Yeah,

Guest: 27:30

Di Bao. Yeah. they, happy, they, our, winning.

Niall: 27:36

yeah. Yeah. So what do people do on Di Bao?

Guest: 27:39

they, hudful ride around hey ya.

Niall: 27:41

He Vietnam

28:16

Bye! OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH