Vegetarian chickens' feet??? Today we took a city tour; a small group there were 5 of us altogether plus our guide. First stop was the Chinese market in an area called Cholon, HCMC's rather large China town (500,000 inhabitants). We spent an hour squeezing between the jam packed stalls, we especially enjoyed looking at the food sections and for some truly bizarre reason the butchery section always has this almost magnetic pull on us. Women were in the thick of...

The motorbike phenomenon We checked into a hotel last night, Yellow House Hotel, in an area called Pham Ngu Lao that the Lonely Planet described as 'like Bangkok's Khao San Road in miniature'. Don't know if anyone's ever been and I'm not by any means knocking the infamous Khao San Road, it's just not somewhere we would choose to stay, preferring somewhere a little quieter. We awoke at 3am to a rowdy rendition of Oasis' 'Don't Look Back in Anger' from a nearby b...

By the seaside Just to let you know - we arrived in Nha Trang OK with no delay as it seems the roads had cleared. Will update soon. *ADDED ENTRY BELOW FOR FRIDAY 9TH NOVEMBER* We have spent 3 nights in Nha Trang and I'm afraid, again, have not done anything of much note. Nha Trang is on Vietnam's south central coast and has a 6km beach front. However the beach was OK but a little disappointing; during the hot season the condition of it is better than duri...

A few days in Hoi An We spent the last 5 nights in Hoi An. Not an awful lot to report - but will add some stuff soon. Tonight we get on a bus for the 12 hour overnight journey to Nha Trang, further down the coast. The bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An arrived today 6 hours late due to flooding on the roads. We're keeping a close eye on the weather but it's difficult to get accurate information. The bus is a sitting bus so it's going to be a LONG journey! *ADDED N...

More rain The rain continued all yesterday afternoon; we opted not to go out for something to eat in the evening along with about a dozen of the hotel's residents. The water had filled the street and pavement and was approaching the hotel door. The shops on the street had shut up for the night piling their stock on chairs and tables. A few people from our hotel decided to venture out for food; an Australian couple told us today that they were virtually swimming...