My second day in Hanoi i spent in the city. In the morning we visited Ho Chi Minh in his glass coffin which was very sureal and over with very quickly; there are rumours that it may be a wax work and the man himself is being preserved somewhere else. We then took a walk back into the centre passing a huge statue of Lenin in a lovely park. We took a walk around the lake in the centre and sat down finding some shade to write some postcards. As we walked back into the busier area a lady carrying two heavy baskets balanced by a long bamboo stick on her shoulder and wearing the traditional pointy hat plonked the bamboo stick on my shoulder and put the hat on my head, she then demanded some money for a picture! In the afternoon i decided it was about time i got a hair cut, the lady wanted to give me a Victoria Beckham and got very excited but i disappointed them by just asking for a trim. They did a good job almost as good as the last hair cut i had in India which was from Annie with a pair of pen knife sissors!

We left that night for Denang purely in the intrest of reaching a beach and doing nothing for a couple of days. I'm sure it sounds silly but we really do need a break after moving around so much and taking so much in. I am becomming less interested in the cultural side of things and will regret it later. Denang is the forth largest city but it has a beautiful three mile long beach. During the day the beach is empty, i could have counted seeing maybe five other people on the beach during the day. Around 5pm it starts to get busy and by 6pm the beach is packed full of people playing volleyball or football, swimming, eating and drinking beer. There really isn't much in Denang but I really enjoyed the beach which is where many of the soldiers took breaks on during the war.

We are now in Nha Trang which is another good spot for beaches but a litlle more tourist based. We took a boat trip yesterday to some lovely islands. We jumped off the boat, swam and snorkled around some coral. We had a lovely sea food luch which i am very proud to say that i have mastered using chop sticks. After lunch the men on board who drive it, catch and serve lunch became the 'boy band' as they called themselves. They were very good using two dodgey guitars, a microphone in a holder made out of pipe and a drum set made out of cut down barrals and an old symbol; i loved it, they played some classics and even asked me to sing. I declined of course as many of you know about my kareoke experiences, i have my mum to thank for my voice! After this we attended the floating bar, where we floated around in rubber rings and got free wine from the bar man who was also in a rubber ring. Great day.

Today was another great day relaxing on a lovely beach, i am now ready to start being a little more cultural again and am really looking forward to getting to Ho Chi Minh City and on into Cambodia which i am reading some very good books on. In fact i even had a little cry on the beach today from one of them.