Well, the time has come to finally take a break from all the lugging around of the increasingly dirty backpack, twelve hour bus journeys and stating in no uncertain terms every five steps to blokes on motos that "I DO NOT want a ride". Thanks. What is it they just can't understand - we travellers like to walk! Because walking is free.

So, this is Vietnam. A mixture of hot, smoggy cities, sublime natural landscapes and mile upon mile of small people in conical hats bent double from cradle to grave planting, looking after and harvesting rice, knee deep in the paddy fields and sleeping away the midday sun in hammocks under palm trees.

If you come to the 'Nam expecting tranquil little rural villages, far removed from the bustle of Western living and a Communist country so set in its ways that capitalism doesn't even dare step foot on the garden path, let alone knock on the door or peep through the letterbox, you may be in for a shock.

From the moment you step off a train, bus or out of the doors to the airport, you will be rebuffing offers of cheap tourist tat, welcome chilled bottled water, photocopied (i.e. illegal) books and apparently authentic tribal craft apparel. This is a Vietnam that desperately wants to be China; a monster in the industrial and developed worlds. And here in Saigon, you may be mistaken for thinking this is a realistic ideal, with the high rise buildings (no fun lugging a full backpack up all those flights of stairs, I can tell thee), city parks (urban lungs for the geographers out there - he winks, knowingly) and domineering cranes dragging the city proudly named after the 'liberator' Ho Chi Minh well and truly into the twenty-first century. Vertically. Not kicking but most definitely screaming. Although this is mainly the honks of moto drivers warning other motorist they are approaching - there is only one rule of the road; if you're smaller than the vehicle that wants to be in the space you currently inhabit, MOVE!! And if you can afford a moto, you've passed the driving test.

And, yes, that does make for interesting life-and-death experiences every time you want to cross the (confusingly signed) roads.

But to the north, the changes are noticable and refreshing. People still live in hills up there!! They still work the terraces. And I don't mean egging on the fans in a foul-mouthed football chant when their team is on its way to the lower divisions. I wonder what the Viet equivalent of Leeds would be? They are almost untouched by Christianity, preferring a more peaceful and harmonious dabble in Buddhism. And they smile. They Smile and shout "Hello!" because you have white skin (and none more whiter than I). They want to talk to you because they want to learn English. And they want to be friendly because its one thing they have as a natural resource in abundance that, if they could bag it up and ship it to Europe, they would indeed become the world's newest superpower they long to be.

But as the South creeps northwards, this will change. The same Western cynacism will pollute the people and their ways of life and, although their lifestyles may not get any better, their collective personality will just get worse. Many already speak English to an incredible degree (you know this when they shout obscenities after you if you don't throw money in their direction), maybe this is the first step in their destiny to become more like us than they can possible forsee. Poor sods. Catholic churches will pop up between the temples - nothing wrong with this but the realisation that death is much more a terminal prospect in Christendom - what better way to portray this than the many, many streets of shops selling coffins, ornately/tackily guilted in gold-coloured plastic from half way down the country. Northwards, the circle of life is allowed to continue. That is portrayed by the motif prostituted and reversed by the Nazis, by the way, and used for thier own gain in the form of a Schwastika. So, if you come here and see it plastered all over their religious artifacts, be prepared to unlearn what you altready know.

Overall, a wonderful varied and interesting country. I have already spent more time here than anticipated and no doubt if it weren't for the political red tape and beurocracy, I would enjoy a little longer. But Cambodia, and the wonders of many a wat, beckons.

Oh, and did I mention, it averages 40 degrees here at the moment! Ouch.