Hello from Hoi An, Vietnam!

It may only be a week since I last got a chance to write, but it feels like so long ago that I am not sure where I should start...

My last blog was from Sihanoukville, Cambodia. After writing my blog, we spent the evening on the beach at one of the many bars that line the coast, and only had one too many cocktails which they literally serve in buckets! On the Tuesday, we took a boat from Sihanoukville out to the surrounding islands to spend the day snorkling and on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The weather was scorching and I don't think a single person in the group finished the day without being sunburnt!

The following day we took a painfully (literally because of my very sunburnt back) long journey across the Cambodian/ Vietnamese border, and into Chau Doc. This was used as a stop-off point, and so we only really had the afternoon here. We spent our afternoon taking a motorbike ride up Sam Mountain to see the sunset. The 45 minute journey consisted off me sitting behind a Vietnamese guide who thought it was hilarious to race and chat to his mates whilst driving up the moutain, and used this opportunity to show off his English skills to me and spent most of the journey naming every single English football team he could think of! We did however make it to the top in one piece, and got a great view out over the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. Although the views were lovely, I was much more interested in the hammocks which lined the viewing platform, and fell asleep for a while and nearly missed the sunset completly!

Last Thursday we left Chau Doc early to travel into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). This city is the craziest place I have ever been to! If you ever thought that the traffic in London was bad then think again! The second we got to our hotel we were greeted by over a hundred motorbikes driving towards us. Our guide told us that the only way to cross the road here is to walk out and hope for the best! There were very few cars anywhere, and instead nearly every one of the 6 million people here have a bike, which they drive anyway they like and pay absolutly no attention to traffic lights, or even which side of the road they are supposed to be on!

After safely making it into our hotel, we spent the afternoon looking around the local market. It was like a maze that we spent 2 hours working around, attempting to weave around the hundreds of cramped stalls without passing out from the ridiculous humidity in the place! Although the hussle and bussle of this city was interesting I am definatly not a fan and instead became fustrated with the inability to walk down the street without either being run over, hassled for money or needed to urgently find an (almost always appauling) toilet due to the upset stomachs that nearly everyone is suffering from! We spent our second day in Ho Chi Minh city taking a trip to Cu-Chi tunnels to learn the history of the Vietnamese/American war. It would have been interesting if our guide could have spoken English, but she tried her best which actually made the day quite funny rather than informative.

I have to say that I was very happy to say goodbye to the smell and grim of this city and depart fr Nha Trang. Our journey to Nha Trang gave us our first experience of a sleeper train, and it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We were in cabins of 4, with 2 bunk beds and a door that locked, so it was safer than I thought. Some of us did however spend most of the night squeezed into one cabin playing drinking games, and after managing only about 2 hours of sleep on the train, I thoroughly regreted this the next day!

We arived in Nha Trang at 6am, to very peaceful and slightly deserted beach town. Not wanting to waste time, a few of us headed straight for the beach to watch the sunrise, and sleep on the sand for several hours. We spent the rest of the morning sunbathing, until I finally ran out of suncream and thought I had better go for a walk around the shops. You would think that finding suncream would be simple enough, but as our tour guide told us, Asian women urge to be white here rather than our urge to tan, and so the only suncream you can buy is factor 80 block!!! My little shopping trip continued to be unsuccessful when trying to find stamps (I have been here 2 weeks and still not found a post office). After a 20 minute walk in the heat (without suncream) I finally found a postoffice, only to be told that they currently don't have any stamps!!! So postcards will be taking a while I'm afraid....

We spent our night in Nha Trang partying at its 'Full Moon' party at the Sailing club which was so much fun. After chatting away to the English man that runs it, he got us a table right next to the 'dance floor' (sand) and quite a few free drinks. It was an amazing night and an even funnier morning when my room mate turned up back at the hotel at 9am minus her shoes!

The rest of my time in Nha Trang was spent lying by the pool, before we got our second train last night to bring us to Hoi An. The second sleeper train was certainly interesting in comparison to the first one! Although we were supposidly in the same class as before, the train was a bit grime, and if you had seen its toilet you might understand! I did however get a bit more sleep than before, even if I did wake up several times because the trains brakes were so aggressive that you would smack your head or fall into the wall everytime it stopped!

This morning we arrived in Hoi An, and I have instantly fallen in love with it. It is a town that used to be occupied by the French, and when wandering the streets it does feel like you are in Europe (besides the soaring heat). We arrived early again and went for a walk at 6.30 this morning to see the sunrising on one side of the river and the moon setting on the other, which was a beautiful view. We have spent the rest of the day wandering around the fishing port, market and hundreds of tailor shops where they can make you clothes from scratch in less than I day. I did manage to resist buying anything, though if you saw some of the dresses they can make for less than $20, it seems a shame that I don't have a ball to go to!!

Although I have enjyed the day, I am suffering with the food here and so didn't join my grup for dinner tonight (which has at least allowed for me to write this very long blog!). Hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow as we are meant to be going on a bike ride!

I hope everyone is well, and I will try to get to a computer a bit sooner next time.

Lots of love xxx