Hello again,

And can I just say that this site doesn't inform me when I get new messages or comments and they're quite hard to find, so imagine my surprise when I just stumbled across the whole lot of them from you all for the first time and I'm now sitting on the computer in hotel reception with my eyes streaming xxxx

Anyway, I'm now in Nha Trang, which a fairly non-descript, soul-less beach town a bit like any other you'd find by any stretch of beach in Europe. We went to the beach for a few hours but it's just so windy and pretty overcast, though still very humid.

I forgot to say what I got up to in the first few days, so here goes a condensed version. Thank god for Sarah giving me my journal as I've been writing in it every day to remind what I've done so far!

Hanoi - Went to the Golden Lake and wondered round, I daren't cross the road on my first afternoon, so I circumnavigated the lake and got back in a cab!

On the second day I had a long lay in and went for a long walk in the afternoon. I went to Ho Chi Min mausoleum complex and went into the museum, which was bizarre. Upstairs had an exhibition about the influences on Vietnam in the early 1900's and had pictures of Picasso and Klimt paintings and abstract sculptures of the Eifel Tower. So weird but very well done. I didn't go and see Ho Chi Min himself as it's only open in the morning. I also went to a few temples and then had a really long wander round the streets. There are people everywhere but it was so good to walk round and soak it all up. I then got a motorbike taxi home in rush hour! It was terrifying! Thousands of bikes everywhere, but my driver was very good and I gave him a big tip!

The third day we headed to Ha Long Bay (which I think I've already wrote about?), then back to Hanoi for an afternoon motorbike city tour. About 10 of us did it, we went round like a convoy, I was on the guides' bike so riding in front. I kept trying to get them all to sing 'we are the mods' but they are all too young to get the reference!

Then we headed to Hue on the train.

Next was Hoi An, a lovely chilled out town I could've happily spent a week at! Yesterday we went to the beach in the morning, but the waves were 6 foot high as the wind was so strong, I went in a few times to my waist, but the pull of the waves going back out knocked you straight over, so I sat and read my book instead, until it started raining! In the afternoon a few of us wondered round the shops, it was so nice just to wonder and chat and peruse the shops and the people and smells. It's a very French looking town. And I got my dress from the tailors, which I've had sent back home!

Another overnight train brought us to Nha Trang this morning.

Tomorrow we may go to a waterpark and then another overnight train to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) tomorrow night that gets us in at 4:00am! I leave the tour in HCMC on Sunday and have booked 2 more nights there in another hostel. I then plan to spend a few more days in Vietnam and may try to find a tour to do round the Mekong Delta before sailing across the border in Phnom Penh. A day or 2 there then off to Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor, then back to Bangkok for Friday 16th-ish. A few days in Bangkok before my flight to New Zealand.

Doesn't it all sound so simple??!!!

Anyway, thanks again for the messages and comments - I will try and reply to some of them later. Off for a shower before dinner now...