It has been quite some time since i last updated this so will try and give a brief description of what i have been getting up to in the last few eeks.

In Hue annie and I hired out some bicycles and went off for a cycle along the river and out into the countryside. It was good to get out of the city and see some more rural areas of Hue and the views over the rice fields were pretty stunning. We cycled past a brick factory at the side of the road where they were digging the clay out of the ground, putting it into a mall machine and then drying the bricks at the side of the road. We also stopped off for a drink along the way at a small local place with a great view over the fields. I dont think many tourists stop there very often as we were regarded as a bit of an attractio and they kept laughing at us. Annie had here phrase book and we tried to learn a bit of Vietnamese with little success but was still a nice way to spend time despite the beer i had being the warmest beer ive ever had. The next day we went on the bak of 2 motorcycles and had a tour around some of the local temples and areas of interest. 1 of the drivers spoke really good english so was able to give us a good idea of what we were looking at and made sure that we got to see the mnks pray at 1 of the temples. When we finshed the tour we got on a bus and headed onto Hoian.

Before we got there we knew that Hoi An was renown for its tailoring and expected there to be quite a few but the sheer number was staggerring when we got there. There must be at least 200 different shops in the town all offering ready made clothes the enxt day! Needless to say the next few days were spent shopping and going back to places for re fittings so we didnt manage to get much culture ito our stop here. We both spent quite a lot of money but got loads of stuff and I have since sent them home. The peple at the post office said it could take anything between 3 and 6 months though so I may still arrive home bewfore they do!

With our money spent we left Hoi An behind and headed down to the beach resort of Nha Trang. The overnight bus wasn't as good as the last trip we had on 1 as by the time we boarded all the beds were taken so we were left with sitting sleeps! By the time we arrived in Nha Trang we were both tired and grumpy so quickly found a hotel that was cheap clean and close to evrythign we wanted. Our first day was spent catching up on sleep and exploring a few of the places nearby. There wasn't actually that much to do apart from eat and lie on the beach though so we decided the next day we would head off to one of the islands nearby and stay in a bungalow there. The trip didnt go quite as well as expected but the bungalow was right on the beach and the views in the mornign (once the strom clouds had dissapeared) were pretty amazing. When we got back to nha trang annie decided she needed a night of comfort so we booked into a pretty nice hotel and spent the afternoon enjoying the facilities, including a roof top pool! In the evening we met up with Harriet and lily and went out for a night out. Amazingly i bumped into someone i knew from uni walking down the street and ended up in the same polace in the evening! The place stayed open till late and had the man u vs Barcelona first leg on so I was a happy bunny. The next day we had to check out of our lovely hotel and then lounged around on the beach all day before going to see the 2 huges buddahs at the temple near by. In the evening we got another overnight bus down to Saigon. We arrived early again and I wasn't feeling particularly well so we checked into a nice hotel room that even had cable tv and I slept for most of the morning. Mid afternoon Annie realised that it was her group meeting for her new tour that night and she had 1 less day in saigon than she had hoped. After she had meet here new group she bought a pizza and we stayed in and watched a film as i wasn't feelign up to going out. The next day i checked into a small room and had another day lazing about as I still wasn't feeling 100%. The next few days were spent sightseeing. I visted the Chi Chu tunnels where the viet cong soldiers lived underground for years during the war with America and we even went through some that had been enlarged for tourists. It was a pretty amazing place and despite it pouring down for the seconfd half of the trip it was a pretty good day. I also went to see the War Remanants museum was had lots of photos that were taken during the war with America. I then stayed up till 1.45 am in my Hotel room on my own to watch the man u Barcelona match andf then finally got to sleep at about 4 a happy boy. The next morning I rose early and got on a bus to cross into Cambodia. I will save that for the next section of my blog though.

Hopefully I can try and upload the rest of my pictures from Vietnam soon but the computers are even slower than in Vietnam so not sure how well itll go.

Hope everyone is well at home and will try and give u a call on ur birthday Mum. What time would be good for u? x