Alman: Well hello there followers! You will be very pleased to know we are both still alive and having fun! No big crisis's, met some people and still chat chat chatting away to one another all the time.
On our first morning in Hue, we left to go see the ancient places of the Citadel. Luckily, as arriving in the morning, the whole place was nice and peaceful. We walked around the great ancient buildings, as well and the gardens - encountering several horses and (to our immense delight) 2 elephants!! We did take lots of photos but are having trouble uploading them, so unfortunatley folks, you'll have to wait till we see you! We sat in the silent pond garden for a long time, watching the fishes and enjoying the quiet. The palace had been re-built more than 4 times since the 18th century, until it was bombed during the war and they simpley lef the ruins.
Later that day we had more PHO - the traditional vietnamese dish of soup with noodles and chicken, a nap and then a pedicure...Oh life is hard. That evening we had a long dinner on a restaurant terrace before hitting our hostel bar for 'Happy Hour' and the famous 'Wheel of Fortune' (which determined which favour of shot you had to take). We made lots of good friends and went dancing at 'Brown Eye - open till the last person fall over' was very good fun!

The next day we left on the 12 hour sleep bus to Hoi Ann, which was a far better journey then the train. We were in bunks on the bus in double layers, so managed to have a good night sleep beofre arriving further South. Hoi Ann was definately the most beautiful spot in Vietnam we visited. Near the the beach and not too busy, the little town was filled with tailor after tailor all begging us to come in and have clothes, shoes and cloats made. We were doomed! After spending the first evening in our PERFECT hotel (we pushed to $8 a night in order to have a private double suit right next to the indoor swimming pool - oh my!) we research clothes and dress designs of the dresses and shirts we wanted to have made. Hattie decided (after MUCH deliberation) on a white wrap-around shirt, and deep purple wrap-around dress, while I went for 2 fitted shirts for work, a work dress and a little black number. Our tailors 'Madonna' and 'Tram' were very pleased with our choices and were distrought when we left.
We travelled around the little town on our bicycles and were just turning a corner when we head a familiar voice cry 'ALEX WILSON!' it was Hannah Matthews!! My great friend from Oundle who Hattie had met at my 21st! What a small small world it is! She was on a project trip with other international students, who we joined on the beach for the afternoon, dinner and then partying all night in the 'Why Not' bar and half-moon beahc party, where sure enough, we bumped into our Belgium boys!! HAHAHA so much for 'broading our horizons!'

It was a great shame to leave Hoi Ann, but we had stayed a day later than planned so did the 22 hour (which actually was 26 with a 2 hour stop in Nang Trang for breakfast...we both fell asleep face down on the table) to Saigon. We were doing ok, so went for dinner with a Dutch girl we had met on the bus, but by 10pm, full of food we retired to our room, which only when looking closely we realised was FIILTHY and had not been cleaned for previous tenants. We were NOT AMUSED! But had no other choice, having booked our bus tickets to Cambodia the following morning we bite our tongues and just went with it.

We did not want to spend more time in Saigon, the rude man at the desk had given us enough of what we needed to see and hear about the big city, and besides, we just wanted to get into Cambodia by then. The bus was great, nice and cold and got us over the border and through customers with no trouble whatsoever. CAMBODIA - we have arrived!!!!!