Short blog today. Not lots to report.

Spent my second day in Hong Kong (Wednesday...?) wandering around looking at the shops n such. Bought a few things but can't fit very much more into the pack at the moment (went a bit shopping crazy in Italy). Also had a massage and foot reflexology which improved my mood markedly. Wednesday evening I went down to the river to watch the evening light/laser show (the largest permenant light show in the world!!). It was ok. My brain kept thinking "gee that's a waste of electricity". Given that I spent my entire winter sans heater to save electricity / carbon emissons, I wasn't particularly thrilled with the show. But Hong Kong is full of flashy flashy lights anyway.

Thursday not an exciting day. Wandering a little bit more in the morning then off to the airport. Hung around the airport for a while and bought 2 new books - very exciting! I left my Europe on a shoestring in Rome to save weight so new books were justified.

Friday also not an exciting day. More wandering, went to the market and a tailors. Got some new summer clothes which were badly needed in this heat and also some summer shoes which were also badly needed thanks to the tool who stole my ballet flats from outside the shower in Rome. Thank you those were my only summer shoes. And who steals stuff from outside the shower anyway?

Today was quite a good day. Went on a day tour to a town a few hours outside Ho Chi Minh city where there was a religious ceremony we were supposed to be watching. I found monkeys which was exceptionally exciting. The ceremony was ok but I felt pretty awkward being a tourist at someone's prayer time so I didn't stay very long. The monkeys were definately the highlight. Then we went to Cu Chi to see the tunnels and various other war paraphenalia. We got to see the traps set in the jungle (which were pretty terrifying), I fired a machine gun (which was also fairly terrifying and I couldn't even tell where my bullets went but I'm pretty sure they didn't hit what I was aiming at), crawl through the tunnels ("tourist-sized" so twice the size of the normal ones, you still had to get on hands and knees at one point to get through and there was a bit that was pitch black that I was not fond of) and watched a communist propaganda film. All very interesting stuff given that I don't know very much about the Vietnam war (I just finished learning about WW2 in Europe).

I'm heading off to Nha Trang tomorrow morning (10 hour bus ride, not looking forward to that) where there will hopefully be a beach to lie on and backpackers to drink beer with. There is a distinct lack of backpackers where I am staying so I have been feeling quite homesick and romesick (I really liked Rome) the past few days.

Looking forward to coming home in 8 days.

Love, hugs etc.