Hi again,

Still safe & sound in beautiful Vietnam. Been travelling Vietnam for about a week now, started in the north and heading south towards Ho Chi Minh city & The Mekong Delta and then into Cambodia.

Since our last blog post we've met up with our travel group so theres 14 of us travelling together - a fine mix of nationalities and ages and everyone getting on great so far. Following a meal in a local Vietnamese restaurant in Hanoi I now recommend the "chop-stick diet"!! Try eating a whole meal (including rice) with chop-sticks , trust me the hunger will soon disappear and you definately wont want desert! Really good food though!

We also had our first experience in a sleeper train...for 14 hours. We slept in cabins with 6 bunks in each. So there were 6 girls in ours ...and a mouse! just imagine the pandimonium in our little cabin when the little fella made an appearance. After stuffing the hole and we all relaxed it wasnt bad at all and a good nights sleep was had (by Trish anyway)

Just about getting used to the 35-37degree heat. Its so nice to get up in the morning and know you can throw on some shorts without even checking the weather. Really appreciating this weekend in particular because if we were at home we would be getting ready to go back to work next week. Oh life is good!!!

In a little town called Hoi An now until tomorrow. Its absolutely stunning. A picturesque little river port south of Danang which attracted Chinese and Japanese trading vessels, the characters of which are still evident here and make for a dynamic blend of Asian cultures.

Because there are 600 tailors in the village we felt obligated to support local industry and get some skirts and dresses tailor made! Not a bad days work flicking through glossy magazines picking out anything we would like to have made for us. Going back for a fitting soon so fingers crossed! Also got a demonstration on the silk making process, starting from 3-day old little silkworms to silk shirts!! apparently baby worms are fed for three days and then they sleep on the forth. When the moth is in the cocoon stage they are dunked in boiling water and killed and the outer layers are whats pulled into tiny strands to make the silk threads. A bit tragic that they have to die but they were nice shirts

Heading to a Vietnamese cooking class tonight, we'll cook 4 dishes and then sample our culinary delights for dinner.

So slan for now, great to get msgs...especially the ones which start "Its still lashing here"

Cat and Trish xx