Yesterday there weren't enough sun loungers at the beach for everyone so the staff worked a queue system - the Russians really understand queueing. First you get a beach towel and lie on the sand, then you are upgraded to a cushion with a towel and finally you get a lounger with an umbrella. Unfortunately by this time David was a bit pink. To avoid the sun bed queue we camped out at the pool and got loungers straight away with the necessary umbrella for David. Yvonne of course is annoyingly brown already.
Ended up all day by the pool due to 2 factors: the sky is blue so the sun is scorching hot and it actually didn't rain. We are expecting a hosepipe ban tomorrow. Obviously we are moaning that it's too hot at 33. Russian watching is the main occupation: no one smiles, ever, we haven't heard anyone laugh and even the children don't seem to make any noise. There is the ever present piped music but otherwise it would be silent - really strange.
We've been noticing for the whole time how obsessed with cleaning the Vietnamese are. They tidy away plates and wipe tables while you are still eating. If you see the waitress coming you learn to grab anything you are not finished with. On the streets there are no bins but little piles in corners awaiting the street cleaner who sweeps the streets and takes away the rubbish every night at about 9.00ish. Vietnam is miles cleaner than Thailand: so far we've only seen 3 rats and 3 cockroaches so it's also significantly cleaner than LA.