Last Thursday night, I hung out a bit at Boomarang at The Crescent.  I met several interesting people starting with restaurant supervisor, Ferdie.

Ferdie is Filipino and has lived in Ho Chi Minh for a couple of years already with his family.  I shouldn’t have been surprised seeing a Filipino in an establishment such as Boomarang — because Pinoys are actually all over the place.

Two years ago, I can walk around our apartment complex and not meet another Pinoy — but now, there’s just an influx of Pinoys in Ho Chi Minh City!  No wonder immigration has been pretty strict lately!  Heard a lot of horror stories of Pinoys getting the third degree.  So if you’re coming to Vietnam, make sure you have:

(1) a hotel reservation in place to show (print out the hotel details); or

(2) if you’re staying at a friend or a relative, make sure you have in your person a Letter of Invitation with a copy of your friend/relative’s passport and Temporary Resident Certificate

Whoa.  I digress!

Going back (like a boomerang, pun intended of course) to Boomarang, Kuya Ferdie found me a seat while I wait for one of the Boomarang’s Quiz Night quizmaster, Jen.  Jen is 1/2 of the duo hosting Quiz Night — the other half is Stu.

And yes, can you believe it?  Jen is Filipino too!  So I had an easy time getting to know her.  She’s an IS teacher BUT get this — she used to teach in my high school in Quezon City!  Serendipity?  Hehe.

I also stayed a bit for the Quiz night and joined Chris and Patrick team.  It was just us 3 — an unlikely bunch — a Scot, a Tunisian and a Filipino.  It was my first time to join a quiz night.  My brother back home is a trivia addict and joins a couple of quiz nights a week so I was kinda channeling my brother during the whole night.  Hahaha!

That night, there were four teams.  The theme was Around the World and had 6 categories with 7 questions.   Luckily, out of the 7 questions per category, there was a Philippine sub-category!  Yay!  I was scared to become one of ’em dead weights to my team.

In the end, our team won!!!!  The prize?  Boomarang picks up our tab.  Darn.  I didn’t order anything!!!  I didn’t mean to stay for the whole quiz and just had dinner so I didn’t think of ordering.  Stupid, I know!

But who cares?  We kicked ass!  I’ve slated my Aussie officemate to join next time coz most definitely, it’ll be difficult to win the quiz if you’re a group of the same nationality.  The questions are too varied and the quizmasters had to make sure that different areas around the world are represented in the questions.

That’s expat quiz night for you!

So if you’re looking to spend a night with good food, interesting people, and stimulating conversations, please join the Quiz Night!  Terrific way to spend Thursday nights!