Hells bells it's hot!

Once again, huge apologies for the big gap in writing a blog entry - and once again I can only blame it on the fact that it's too darn sticky to contemplate spending much time in the internet cafe's of Vietnam (the computers are slow, slow, slow - I think they may be powered by slugs - and the regular power cuts can prove to be a bit of a hindrance too). Oh, and we've also spent a fair whack of time having silly amounts of fun with Sal and Rob... that's them, in the pic above!

Well, since Mike's last entry, things have improved hugely. The rat that was swimming in our toilet was never seen again, mainly thanks to the fact that we moved from a ground floor room to a room on the fifth floor. As the only two rooms on the floor, we shared a large veranda with Sal and Rob who were conveniently posted next door. The view over Nha Trang was beautiful - all white sand, aquamarine water and coconut trees, so we spent many happy evenings putting the world to rights with a cold beer - lurverly stuff!

Our time in Nha Trang was a thoroughly chilled out affair. On the first day, Mike and I drifted around the shops and cafes, as we attempted to get over our scary overnight bus journey - having travelled on a high-speed double decker bus with just 3 functioning tyres, I won't be in a hurry to repeat the experience - I can feel a few grey hairs appearing even as I remember it... Anyhoo, we needed to gather our energy for what Sal had in mind for day 2...

Day 2 was stonkingly hot. It was enough to make me abandon my eyeliner and go 'au natrel'. Yikes. Sal and Rob had booked us onto a boat for a day of island hopping, which is basically a glorified excuse for a water-borne pub crawl. We'd assumed we'd be on a boat with a group of like-minded 20 and 30 somethings, but we were in for a shock when we arrived at the port to be greeted by a gaggle of Asian grannys - and I can honestly say I have absolutely no idea what they were doing on the cruise! While we splashed about in the sea for half an hour, they sat demurely on the boat waiting for it to move again. And when the locals tried to drag Mike and Rob into a drinking contest, without a flicker of embarrassment, they poked and prodded my white skin - when will these people realise that i'm terribly British, and therefore not entirely comfortable with being stroked by random strangers?! Anyway, it was a fun day, and we all rolled home very weary and a little on the sunburnt side... even Mike was like a piece of over-cooked lobster - tee hee!

Day 3 was another scorcher, so we went to visit Long Tham - a photographer who is famous in this part of the world. His black and white images of Vietnamese life are very moving, though Mike looked infinitely relieved when I agreed that they were too expensive for us backpackers (as he keeps reminding me 'we're backpackers, not flashpackers' - give me the credit card man!) After that we spent some time mooching around a silk gallery, though my expensive tastes meant we came away empty handed. I still can't understand why Mike thought that $25,000 was too much for a lovely folding screen.... what a meanie.

Day 4 dawned and once again it was beltingly hot. We'd originally planned to take the cable car to a local island, but the 12 pound price tage stopped us in our tracks, so we turned around and headed to the beach. The 4 of us hired some sun loungers and parasols, so we whiled away a very nice day playing rummy and chess. Needless to say, Sal and Rob have only just learnt how to play rummy, but they're already wiping the floor with me. Drats and double drats. We also had some bracelets made by a local man, and even Mike had to agree that the 80p price tag was very reasonable... oh yes, bit by bit, i'm breaking him. Soon i'll have that $25,000 silk screen in my grubby mits.

The next day we agreed we'd 'done' Nha Trang, so the 4 of us hopped on a bus down the coast, and arrived in Mui Ne. It's basically a surfy type resort, with plenty of near-naked men - yay! Not that i'm looking of course - though there are plenty of hot surf bunny's to keep Mike happy too. Mui Ne is even more beautiful than Nha Trang as it's much less developed and therefore less spoilt. There's also a huge amount of kite surfers, so we happily lost a couple of hours yesterday watching them do some poncy flying-through-the-air type tricks.

Which brings me to today, and yet another experience ticked off the list - dune surfing! Yup, Mike and I decided to blow out the cobwebs with a bit of dare-devil activity in scorching hot conditions. Once again, the weather was extreme enough for me to abandon my eyeliner (what is happening to me? - first the high heels went, then the hair got curly, and now i'm make-up free. I'm going to get this sorted when I get to Oz) - so Sal, Rob, Mike and I hopped in our early-morning jeep to visit the local sights. We visited the red sand dunes, a local fishing village, a canyon, and the very pretty 'fairy stream', but easily the best experience was the white sand dunes. After our driver deposited us by some money-savvy children who hired us their sand sledges - basically sheets of plastic with a handle attached - we trudged for half an hour to reach the tops of the dunes. Then, like a group of lunatics, we hurtled face-first down the dunes. I thought we were being so outrageous, but the truth of the matter is that you travel at a pretty predestrian pace, and end up in a crumpled heap with sand covering every nook of your body - the sand-lady look is just sooooo 'this season' darlings. A few more slides down the dunes, we eventually trudged back to a local restaurant, where the owner took great delight in throwing buckets of cold water at us. I'm sure it was meant with great affection!

And that is pretty much all I have to report... tomorrow the 4 of us are moving onto Hoi Chi Minh (or Saigon as it used to be called), where we have 4 nights together before we part company - Sal and Rob are moving to England in the next few weeks, so we'll be roping some of you into looking after them for us. And we've just booked some flights to Oz for a weeks time. One chapter of our world tour is nearly over, and the next is just beginning... we'll report in again soon.

Anyway, love as ever to all of you, and we're still missing you.

Big love, Mr and Mrs Cheetham (that still sounds weird!) xxx