Good morning Vietnam!! (bet you couldn't see that one coming)

Xin Chao!!

Well, we finally left Laos a day before our visa expired and crossed the border to Vietnam to be greeted by the rain (boo). We arrived in Hue which is a pretty busy city and a world away from laid back Laos. It was a nice place all the same and a bit more westernized. We spent a few days just mooching around the city and seeing the main tourist sites, the imperial citadel, forbidden purple city and the octagonal pagoda. Its is quite easy to spot the American influence on the citadel (being that there is only about a quarter of it left!), although in general there are a LOT less American tourists here than in Laos.....wonder why? The people here are very friendly (as long as you are buying something) and again the food is amazing. A nice man has just been reading over my shoulder and corrected my spelling of Xin Chao!

After a few days in Hue we hit the road again, to make up for the extra time spent in Laos. we have moved down to Hoi An, which is another lovely place. very relaxed and another world heritage town (bit similar to Luang Prabang) with plenty of nice bars and restaurants where one might happen across the Man City match later.... We have been to visit some Cham ruins at My Son this morning (or whats left of them thanks to good old uncle Sam) and had a nice boat ride back. We will probably stop here for a few days before heading down to Siagon.

Hope everyone at home is OK, only about 7 weeks left until we will be back in May and will probable have lots of catching up to do. I have finally managed to get my hair cut for under 2 quid, so the afro is no more. I now look like I have been drafted for the Army. I have made a half arsed attempted to link the blog to the pictures on photobucket, but as you probably can see, it hasn't really worked to the desired affect. Anyway, Im sure I will eventually figure it out.

Take care and love to everyone.

Pete & Urvy.

XXX

p.s. Happy Mothers Day Mum, your card is in the post along with some more dirty washing!