I managed to go to Vietnam (specifically Da Nang) for ISITDTU CTF Finals, as part of NUS Greyhats.

It was a wonderful trip, and my second time going overseas with the team.

Day 1!

After changing some money into Vietnamese Dongs, I was a millionaire:

We arrived in Da Nang, and after a short rest, my friend & teammate Vinh brought us to a claypot restaurant:

We toured the night market and visited the Dragon Bridge and Love bridge (didn’t hang anything there though 🙁 ). The Dragon Bridge spits out fire (and water) every Friday:

The Dragon Bridge:

Dragon Spitting Fire:

We visited the beach nearby afterwards since it was closeby. It was pitch black at night.

Beach Afterwards:

Day 2

After breakfast, we went to Linh Ung’s Pagoda, which was situated on an island nearby on top of a mountain.

We visited the 5 peak mountains. Which had incredible a cave system.

Cave:

We also went to Hoi An:

Day 3

It was competition day. We arrived at the location and participated in the CTF. We were the second foreign team (the other one was bi0s), it was exciting to face off with all the teams. We ended up getting 7th.

There was a dinner by the organizers where we could mingle with the local teams as well, and I spent a lot of time talking with a local team and bi0s as well.

Day 4

We went to Ba Na hills, which were thick with fog:

Day 5

At every restaurant we went to these past few days, I drank this miraculously good tea. Vinh mentioned that it was called Trà Sâm Dứa, and I bought a large pack of it in the morning 🙂

We then left for Singapore.

Conclusion

It was an exciting experience flying overseas for a CTF, and I especially loved Vietnam. I believe the experience will aid in setting up foreign events for Greyhats as well.

Many thanks to the NUS School of Computing for awarding us with the SToW grant, and all the members of NUS Greyhats who contributed to the qualification!