Good Morning Vietnam

Marie arrived yesterday morning at 06.30 from the overnight sleeper bus from Nha Trang so she is still in bed this morning catching up! We had a hectic day yesterday, we followed the walking tour of HCMC from the Lonely Planet book which was good but tiring, culminating in the bar on the 23rd floor of the Sheraton Saigon, which of course was the highlight, particularly when we found it was happy hour!

We found some lovely grey linen material in the market which I am considering buying to have a trouser suit made in Hoi An ( where we are flying to on Tuesday), also picked up some vest type t-shirts (cos I forgot to bring mine) . We found a tailor shop last night who have three lovely items I liked, they offer the complete made to measure piece for around 17 poumd, so seriously considering that, I think I will regret it if I pass the opportunity. We are going to the Mekong Delta for a day tomorrow. Today we have to find a hotel for tonight, book my flight from Hoi An to HCMC on 5th March, collect my laundry which costs 35 pence per item, decide on the tailoring and of course have my foot treatment and manicure that I have been promising myself for the last few days!

The food here is great, no more struggling to find something, which in a way is a shame cos I was beginning to loose some weight! The roads are an utter nightmare. As mentioned before the are are no tut-tuts here but millions of scooters, and I ,mean millions, I don't know where they all go all the time but it is constant and crossing the road is a very scary experience. They have very wide roads with many complicated intersections, there are the odd traffic lights and there are many crossings but no-one ...no-one takes any notice of them at all. So we have learnt the best way to get to the other side is to wait for a local to be crossing and tag onto him, you just have to put your safety in their hands! We have both seen an accident, a different one, since we have been here, they just get up walk to the side of the road and brush themselves down! It always involves scooters.

We are thinking of going to a beach area from Sunday to Tuesday so will keep you posted. I have of course got a different sim card now, Terri has the number if anyone needs it.

Bye for now!

XX