Before we start this blog entry- forgot to mention a very important event that involved realising that denim skirts whilst on a tuk tuk was not appropriate attire in Cambodia. George had chosen this particular piece of clothing one day and was sat facing backwards on the tuk tuk. Next thing we notice 2 guys on a motorbike looking up her skirt and laughing to themselves. Two seconds later they'd crashed into a stall at the side of the road and were thrown off their scooter(it's ok, they survived and got back up again).

So anyway, we're currently in Hoi An in central Vietnam. Since the last blog entry we went to Saigon for 4 days which was brilliant. It was their new year (which travellers are advised to avoid as prices get inflated and everything shuts down for 4 days!), however we still had a brilliant time. We joined about another 4 million people on the streets of Saigon on nye to watch the fireworks and celebrations which was an unbelievable experience, then wandered the streets the next day and visited the war remnants museum. We went to a circus that night which would not have passed any h&s or animal welfare standards in the UK. It involved bears riding mopeds, hypnotised crocodiles, balancing elephants, snake wrestling, bike riding monkeys, cats, dogs, goats etc. Very weird but an experience!
The next day we visited the Cu Chi tunnels- a vast network of tunnels the vietneme built to live/hide/fight during the war. Our tour guide asked for a volunteer to go down the tunnels that have been kept at their original size and not widened for tourists assome of the others have. Riggdogg pushed staff down firstto fight off the bats (literally, she cleared the tunnels of bats although riggers got to experience a few). I decided to be the photographer for the girls to protect the bags, not that i'm a wuss or anything. Once the girls had come back out safely (having crawled through bat s*** in the pitch black (staff didnt smell any different to normal afterwards)) I manned up and went down the widened tourist tunnels. I then had a panic attack and had to make the entire tour group exit after about a minute much to everyones disgust, but staff saved the day and persuaded the tour guide (through offering sexual favours) to take them all down again. I continued to watch the bags.
After that we went to a traditional vietnamese water puppet show, which wasnt the most memorable of occasions (didnt involve dancing bears or anything) to celebrate George's last night. Luckily some random guys had given us all a free beer to take in, which numbed the pain.
Next day we got on the bus to Nha Trang. This was supposed to be a 9hr bus ride that turned into a 12hr bus ride,with people lying in hammocks in the aisle. We arrived in darkness having booked nowhere to stay, trekked around for an hr with our rucksacks and getting turned away from every hotel/hostel. We were about to head to the beach for a cosy night in the rain, when TJ (a local restaurant owner) offered us and 2 other girls his bed for the night... So we took it! The 3 of us shared his hard wooden bed with no mattress and the 2 other girls shared the floor. Not sure if the beach would have been comfier.
Next day we went well above budget and booked oursleves into a hotel for the night and spent the day on the (slightly underwhelming) beach,where I was violated by local men trying to look up my skirt. I loved it! We then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in mud baths after we decided that we needed a well deserved treat. That night we tested Nha Trang's buckets (not like that you dirty minded people) and danced the night away. Met people of loads of different nationalities and some of us had a cheeky kiss or two...
After 5 hrs sleep we got on the party boat around the islands which didnt do much for the headache at 9am and to top things off the westerners were put on top deck for lunch whith no shelter from the wind and rain. It did however turn out to be great fun as we danced and sang along to bob marley on stage and patriotically sang sweet chariot. We even snorkelled and saw... a fish.
That night got the sleeper bus to Hoi An which is where we are now and is famous for its 500 odd tailors. We've all bought tailored dresses/suits today which will probably nver arrive in England but it was good fun!

Thats all for now, unfortunately because of Vietnam's tenuous links to communism facebook is banned here so we cant upload any photos. Heather has set up a flickr account though but she has no idea how you find it. Her name is heather.staff or heatherstaff and she's made the photos publically available. We tried to upload the last set onto here but it crashed half way through. Heather would also like to point out that she got bitten on the eye the night before the trip to angkor wat which explains her fat eye. she was not in a fight. Will try and update you all soon xxxxx

PS has anyone else noticed the resembelance between riggdogg and akon? We were on the each when some cambodian girls came up talking to us. They said that i looked like shakira, heather looked like beyonce and riggers looked like akon. Pretty astute for 14 yr olds. Riggers also got slapped on the arse and nearly taken out by an 80yr old vietnamese woman today.