Last weekend, the Swannies Boot Campers had a leisurely jog through the leafy streets of the nation’s capital!

As well as Vung Tau, last weekend the Swannies were also in Hanoi undergoing the trauma of Boot Camp.

Below, Alex Leonard provides a detailed account.

Last Saturday, 2 March saw the Vietnam Swans in Hanoi kicking off the year with our first ever Boot Camp.

The day began at the Australian Embassy with good weather and a 20-metre shuttle run test followed by an unimaginably gruelling exercise circuit and then a game of netball against the Hanoi Ois. Much to our dismay and shame, the Oi’s gave us a fair drubbing. However, it was agreed over beers at the end of the day that a fair few questionable referee’s decisions went their way. And that’s not to take anything away from the netballers – they actually do play their game much better than we do, such as it is.

Lunch arrived in the form of truly delicious ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato sandwiches from National Club Sponsor, Alfresco’s and, after a quick rest, it was time for a leisurely jog through the quiet leafy boulevards of the capital.

Of course, I’m kidding. Jogging through the streets of Hanoi is almost always a kind of Hell, which is exactly what I suspect it was meant to be yesterday. Forty minutes later we arrived at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, some of us including myself under the impression that all we had left to do was pose for a group photo and get a bit of a pep talk before wrapping things up. Right!

There exist infinite forms of torture, and Boot Camp Captain Trent Mears knows quite a few of them. I don’t even want to talk about what happened next, the memory is so painful. Suffice to say Boot Campers began dropping like flies. Hanoi President, Dan Hopkins, I thought, put it rather succinctly when he groaned, clutching his sides, “That was fu*ked.”

Incredibly, there was still another leg to go. Dragging our feet and dreaming of ice-cold mugs of beer we made our way to Truc Bach Lake and paired up for a swan-boat race across the water and around the island and back. I won’t name any names, but gross shenanigans robbed me and Dan of victory by a handspan.

Fortunately, we were soon able to wash the bitter taste of unjust defeat out of our mouths with ice-cold mugs of beer and catch the second half of Richmond v. Essendon at JASPAS.

Thus, complete fitness was achieved and an awesome day brought to a close.

Huge thanks to all participants and organisers, especially Trent Mears, for putting it all together and Adam McDonald for the beer coupons.