DONG HOI - MUI NE (VIETNAM)

Okay, you know how this works now, this always starts with an apology from us about the useless updating of our blog - so again, sorry!

Now that's over, lets get down to business..... we had just left Hanoi again I think when James left off last time.....so, from there we went to Dong Hoi, mainly as I had read in the trusty Lonely Planet guide book that there were some mighty fine caves there (the Phong Nha and the Tien Son caves) and let it be said they were very impressive. Tien Son was lit with multicoulured lights making it look a bit like a seedy club, but after walking up what seemed thousands of steps to make it there in the burning sun and what felt like 100% humidity, it was a blessed relief to get out of the heat! Phong Nha was by far the greater of the 2 and was well worth the trek there - it's remarkable for its thousands of metres of underground passageways and river caves filled with stalactites and stalagmites. We had to hire a boat to get inside, and as we were the only 2 there we had (and paid for!!!) a boat meant for 12 just for us!!! The tunnels were lit with only white lights so it looked like they were candles lighting our way in. Inside were beaches which were used during the 'American War' (as it is perhaps correctly called in Vietnam) and there was an eiree feel as we wondered about the abandoned war refuge.

So what's in Dong Hoi it self, well alas, not alot. James: 'Come to Dong Hoi' in his best salesmans speak 'Theres a plane'. Yep, apart from the caves some 2 hours out of town and a plane which crashed during the Vietnam/American war, there ain't alot else to see here (note from James - Come on Jem they had a Deco statue of a lady too!!!!!!). Needless to say we only stayed the one day and headed onto Hoi An - a place which is the last word on tailoring and if we have the money will come back here every few years or so and stock up our wardrobes!!!

Every where you looked, road you went down and shop we saw they were vying for our buisness and we were only too happy to oblige them (mum, I promise I controlled myself so don't worry!).We went to 2 shops in the end, the first gave us a catalogue to browse through and give us ideas - unfortunately it was a Next catalogue from back home so needless to say I was hardly inspired! James bought up a storm with 2 suits and some mighty fancy shirts (all the same style but in a variety of pantones!) I was my normal restrained self when it came to the shopping experience and only got a coat, a dress, 3 trousers and 3 tops - well for me that was restrained! If places weren't trying to sell us new threads then they were wanting us to stay in there rather swish hotels and it has got to be said the accomodation was SWISH -oh la la! South East Asia offers some great places for your money, and I think up until then we had done okay with our pounds, but here for the same money as a night in Hanoi, we got a pool!!! A POOL BY GOD! So when we weren't lording it up in the shops we were lounging around our rather posh hotel - hark at us eh! There was of course more to Hoi An than shopping, it was a beautiful little place in it's own right, well worth walking round.

Once our new purchses were safely winging there way home via ship (it takes 3 months!) we left to make our way to Mui Ne, where we headed straight for the beach, me desperate to get a tan and James hiding under the umbrella from the sun! Mui Ne has no real town centre as such, it's a really long stretch of road along a beach full of resorts, hotels, restaurants and not a lot else, which was great after all the bigger cities we had been to recently. 1 day of sunning was enough for James so the next day, after braving getting on the back of a motorbike taxi the night before, we hired our own motorbikes! I don't know who was more scared, us or the 2 poor men who lent them to us. After a few kangarooing set backs down the main road we managed to get across to the next town and back without any mishaps! Ali and Pete, we're converted, La Mon here we come baby! :0)

I won't bang on about how great Mui Ne was, the clear warm sea, the stupidly cheap food and drinks, the super friendly locals and what a good time we had as that would just be plain mean to tease you like that.... no.... I won't mention any of that at all.

We didn't want to leave, but time was pressing on, so off we went to Ho Chi Minh City as it's now called, although the locals still refer to it as Saigon which, dear reader we will be sure to enlighten you about next time.......!

More when theres more!
J n J