After the pleasures of our last stop Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam, is a severe disappointment. En route we visited Marble Mountain Pagoda, which was a serious waste of time, it reminded me of China, a lot of climbing of steps to see, well, not very much, an average view and yet another pagoda. Hmmmm. Plus it was raining. You see, all this travel is not always exotic and exciting, sometimes it's just a case of hauling yourself up another mountain to be ...

At last we have arrived in shopping Mecca, I can just unroll my Gucci shopping prayer mat and lie down and feel like I've arrived in heaven. It's The Place for tailor made clothes, Chinese lanterns, pearls, art, lacquerware. We all go into a complete shopping frenzy - for the first afternoon our tour group just run around like headless chickens, ordering clothes, getting measured, seeing what everyone else was buying, ordering the same, but bigger and better an...

Nha Trang is a beach resort - a complete and welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of Saigon. We visited the local mineral mud baths, and paid extra to get a 'double tub' to ourselves rather than bathe with the common herd. The advertisements hilariously promised that it would be 'doubly exciting' and showed a picture of a sexy young Vietnamese couple cavorting in a tub. No sooner had we got settled into our tepid mix of brown gunk than up popped the resor...

Leaving Saigon we headed briefly south for a one night 'home stay' on the Mekong delta. This is a polite was of saying we had to sleep in a dormitory. With other people - people who would snore and may have other unpleasant habits. Although we only took daypacks, mine was bulging with eye masks, earplugs, and my winceyette pyjamas. En route to the south we stopped off at a Cai Dai temple - it's a newish religion started in about the 1920's - it's a mixture of...

Finally arrived in Vietnam - my but Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh as the locals now call it) is a frightening place. Traffic levels like I've never seen before - imagine Hyde Park Corner populated by motorbikes, cars, people, dogs and old people carrying 2 hundredweight of goods either end of a long pole, all criss-crossing at will. Crossing the road is a new skill to be learnt, it involves launching oneself into the road and crossing slowly but surely to the other si...