Suzi 22/07/06 (Re-sent!)

DIDN'T ARRIVE THE FIRST TIME, RE-SENT 25/07/06!

Hello again!

A day late I know but onwards and upwards with our travels through Vietnam. We left Cambodia on 12 July and joined a tour through the Mekong Delta for 3 days, from Phomn Penh to Saigon (we called it Ho Chi Minh City to start with so we could make sure we were being politically correct but all the locals call it Saigon still so we've given up and do so too!), stopping at Chau Doc and Can Tho overnight on the way. Was really good fun, much cheaper than organising the same sights ourselves and we really enjoyed visiting the floating market at Cai Rang, which is the biggest in the Mekong Delta and quite a strange sight, with rows of boats selling every type of fresh produce from local farms you could ever imagine. Best bit is the "floating coffee shop" where a small rowing boat hooks on the side of tourist boats and sells you coffee and coke as you chug along!

We met two nice guys on the tour, John from Melbourne and Huw from London, who we then spent a fab time in Saigon with (have met up with John again yesterday in Hoi An as he's on the same "route" up the coast as us!). Thorsten was especially pleased to have some male beer-drinking companions after we officially found the cheapest beer in the world to enjoy! It's called Bia Hoi and it is freshly brewed without chemicals each day, lasting for only 24 hours. It costs about 6p a pint, even slap bang in the middle of Saigon, and is actually quite nice. It's served over ice though so that takes a bit of getting used to!

From Can Tho we headed to Saigon, where we spent a great 5 days exploring the city. The War Museum was probably the most interesting sight, although the atmosphere in the city is brilliant and we spent hours wandering around on our final day. The museum has one particularly vivid exhibition of photographs taken by photographers of various nationalities who lost their lives in the Vietnam war. Very poignant and also really scary, there was one reel of film taken by a guy who was killed while he was taking those shots lying in a trench with American troops and the photos were developed after his death. Vietnam's history overall is fascinating even if its sometimes told in "official" sights in a somewhat one-sided way! We did one day trip out of the city to the Cao Dai Temple HQ and the Cu Chi tunnels, which was really good fun. The tunnels were part of the region's the Viet Cong HQ during the war and are absolutely tiny but amazing, with living quarters, kitchens and even a hospital linked underground. The government have widened a tunnel especially for fat western bottoms and you can go down for 100m and crawl along. It's horrible and we (along with the rest of our group, only 2 people made it all the way!) left at the first exit after 30m, that was well long enough to learn it was a horrendous way to live, and that was in the widened tunnels; the original have entrances only 10cm wider than the length of Thorsten's foot!

We headed up the coast on the overnight train to Hoi An, arriving here on 19 July. It's a great town, easy to get round on foot or bike (yup, we're now hooked and hired bikes again!) and the people are really friendly. We had a day exploring the sights of the old port town (the ceramics museum was really interesting, no idea how they did it but they got ceramics from here all the way to Africa in wooden boats in the 10th century!) and a day trip out to My Son. Its was the capital of the Champa Kingdom, dating from the 6th to 16th century, but, although more tranquil and very beautiful with its mountainous backdrop, the temples simply can't compete with Angkor. Got some fantastic pictures of the temples though as the majority were heavily bombed during the war and the "half restored" ones are very majestic.

We are staying an extra day (leaving tomorrow for Hue) and have given in to temptation and had a new travelling wardrobe (and a few extra things, couldn't resist!) made. We've had a total of 19 items hand-made for 190 dollars and they fit really well and (we think anyway!) look really nice. We've both had camping trousers made for 10 dollars, absolute bargain considering they cost thirty quid at home! Hoi An is considered the tailoring "capital" in Vietnam and couldn't recommend it enough, its so cheap you could bring an extra suitcase on holiday, fill it with great clothes and probably save the cost of the flight!

Off for a swim now (we're staying in a, really nice, but cheap, guest house but it has a sister, more expensive, hotel with a pool which we can use for free. Bonus!) and then to pick the last of our clothes up later. Early start tomorrow as we're off to Hue so its a lazy day (not that we've had 4 months of those!)for us ahead! Take care, will speak again soon.