No particular reason for the animals, other than I can't upload any photos at this internet cafe! Yesterday at 0700 we boarded the bus to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and it was a pleasant surprise to have a decent bus and roads with a proper surface. The drive to the border crossing point was uneventful and took about 5 hours, so we arrived there in the blistering mid-day heat. You would never have known it was the border, as both the exit and entry points were merely corrugated iron shacks. The border, as usual, had to be crossed on foot, carrying all your stuff and by the time I arrived at the Vietnamese side the sweat was dripping from my nose and running into my eyes (What a pretty picture I have painted!). As we left immigration (if you can call it that), we found ouselves on a very long, straight road which stretched as far as the eye could see, through the heat haze that is. At this point I was prepared to sit down in the shade and never move again as I could see no sign of the tour group that was to take us on the next leg of our journey. Then I saw what looked like a mirage and a man appeared from somewhere shouting Happy Tours, and boy, was I. An apt name if ever there was one. The next bus was equally as nice and the roads were even better, the journey into the city only taking 2 hours from there. An added dimension to the trip was the fact that we only had $9 between the 3 of us for food and drink, which wasn't helped when we had to pay a quarantine fee at the border. This involved the customs official asking if you were ill and when you replied in the negative, giving you a certificate saying that you weren't ill and all for the princely sum of 10 pence each. We arrived at about 1600 and left Alan safely ensconced in an internet cafe with all the bags, while Maria and I went in search of accomodation. Being the fuss pots that we are, it took about 10 hotels and 500 stairs before we found what we were looking for, all the buildings being very narrow and very tall. Also on the "to do list" was finding an ATM as a matter of urgency as we had survived on water and chocolate chip cookies during the journey. ATM located and I was over the moon to discover that here at least I am a multi-millionaire! The currency is Dong and you get 29000 to the pound, so I withdrew a couple of million - how cool is that! Anyway, Happy Halloween to one and all. Sherry xxx