Here we go again... We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and the first thing that struck us was the insanely busy streets. People say Bangkok is crazy but in comparison it seems like a sleepy town! Every direction you look in there are hundreds of motorbikes weaving in and out the traffic. Crossing the street is definitely an adventure, standing at a zebra crossing and hoping the traffic will stop for you is a lost cause as we quickly discovered. We have spent the last few weeks, in both Cambodia and throughout Vietman trying to work out the rules of the road and have finally cracked it... there are none! As long as you beep your horn all the time you can essentially do as you wish, including going the wrong way up a highway, going through red lights and even driving on the pavement! To cross the road you have to just pick a slight dip in the traffic flow and walk out, very slooowly, so all the traffic can move around you! (Kate - thanks for the find a monk and cross behind him tip!). The vietnamese don't seem quite as good at fitting lots of people on a motorbike so the current record is still held by Cambodia - 6 adults on one little motorbike!
Alex's Dad kindly treated us to a stay in the Rex hotel and it was a very welcome change to the budget accomodation we are used to, plus with a pool on the roof we were able to escape the traffic and relax for a few hours in relative peace (you can of course still hear their horns blasting... you can't escape them!). We enjoyed a drink on the roof terrace, surrounded by colourful lanterns as we looked out over the city and had our first traditional Vietnamese meal watching a cultural performance in an ornate restaurant. Thanks Peter, we really enjoyed ourselves. Of course we couldn't let ourselves relax for too long so we booked on a day trip to see the Chu Chi tunnels, the highlight being when you are able to go down into the tunnels and crouch down / crawl through it. It was pretty small despite the fact it has been widened to accomodate us large westeners. I was particularly worried as I was behind one of those stereotypical fat american guys and was convinced he was going to get stuck and I'd be trapped down there with him, but fortunately we made it back out! We were pretty impressed / horrified at the ingenuity of how they built their tunnels and the brutal traps they set to kill / maim the Americans - no wonder so many people were mentally scarred after the war.

Before heading north up the coast we joined a 2 day trip of the Mekong delta, where we spent several hours cruising along the picturesque river watching people trading and transporting their produce and cooking, washing and playing in the (pretty dirty) water from their ramshackle houses that line the river banks. We had numerous stops to see some of the industries that thrive in this area including a honey and fruit farm and a coconut candy producer where we got to sample the local produce (and encouraged to part with our tourist dollars as frequently as possible). The highlight of the trip was probably when we transfered into a little rowing boat, given the straw cone hats to wear and floated down little canals surrounded by huge sugar cane. Some of the women who row these boats are pretty old and it must be back-breaking work for them every day.

We experienced our first sleeper night bus on the journey to Nha Trang - basically a bus with reclining bunk beds and are pretty cramped. The roads were really bumpy so we didn't sleep to well - in fact at one point we hit a bump so hard that Alex flew out his seat and hit his head on the bunk above! So we wearily decided that we'd earnt a few days of being excessively lazy and relaxing on the beach... it's a hard life.

Next stop, Hoi An, which is probably my favourite town out of those we visited in Vietnam. It is here we celebrated Alex's 30th birthday (don't worry I do keep reminding him he's an old git now!). We stayed in a nice hotel with views over the river and surrounding paddy fields and were surprised to find that a couple of hours after checking in a little cake saying 'Happy Birthday Mr Alexander' arrived in our room - needless to say that didn't last long and yes, I did let Alex have a little bit too. We spent the afternoon having a few beers on the beach and then to a nice restautrant in the ancient quater for dinner followed by a few drinks. We obviously stayed out a little to long as when we left the bar we found it was like a ghost town and had a few fun and games getting home!

The next couple of days were spent exploring this quaint little town and getting suits and clothes tailor-made. With over 200 hundred tailor shops and lots of different materials and styles to choose from in each we were definitely spoilt for choice and it was certainly an interesting experience!

Our final destination in Vietnam was Hanoi in the north and we had a real shock when we landed to discover it was only 15 degrees and raining! The jeans and jumpers actually had to be dug out of the bottom of our bags! On our first evening we wandered around the pretty lake district and saw a traditional water puppet show. We didn't really have a clue what was going on but it is quite clever how they control these puppets underwater on long bamboo sticks even if it is perhaps a little cheesy.

We did a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda which is a cave where many Vietnamese make a pilgrimage each year to pray for good fortune for the next year and to rub a rock which they believe to be a gold tree - we're sceptical but thought it was wirth a shot just in case, if we win the lottery when we get home we;ll know it worked! The cave itself wasn't that impressive but the journey was really beautiful involving 2 hours on a little rowing boat through the countryside and then a cable car ride up into the hills. Whilst on the river it seemed we were a tourist attraction ourselves as many of the Vietnamese on pilgrimage from the countryside have never seen westerners before, so we recieved lots of stares and greetings in broken English!

Our trip to Halong bay was one of the highlights of Vietnam. We spent 2 days and 1 night on a wooden junk boat sailing among the amazing limestone karsts, visiting caves, floating villages and kayaking. After the hustle and bustle of Hanoi we really appreciated the tranquility of being able to just sit on the top deck and watch the numerous eagles soaring overhead. We didn't brave the waters though as despite being a UNESCO world heritage site the water is pretty polluted, which is a real shame. Still we had a great time, especially once we'd persuaded our guide that we really didn't want to spend the evening joining him on the karaoke machine!
Home soon missing everyone love al and lorna