Tuff Life Vietnamese! (one for Baz)

Hello all,


We are in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City to give it its full name, and having a great time. Before this we stopped in Hoi An for about 4 days. This was a lovely place, we went on a boat trip to nearby Cham island and chilled out on the beach and did a bit of snorkeling, although much of the coral had been damaged by a storm the previous week. Saw a nice crab though....

Hoi An is full of tailors and clothes makers, and Urvy had a pair of pink shorts made for about 5$. She was measured up and we went back the next day to collect them. As we approached the shop we could hear raised voices (bad sign). We walked in to the middle of a massive domestic between the seamstress and her husband. Not sure if the pink pants were the cause of the argument, but we started to get a bit worried when she picked them up and began beating her husband about the head with them. Fortunately it didn't seem to damage the stitching. Her son stepped in and took the pants off her to finish unstiching the pockets, while his mum went to look for something heavier........ was probably the most surreal thing to happen so far. I'm a bit worried the pants might be cursed and I might be the next husband to feel the wrath of them, beware the pink pants wearer!

After that we had a spot of bother checking out of the guesthouse where the agro landlady was tying to overcharge us for the room. After much arguing she didn't want to compromise so we left it until the morning when we were leaving. When we went downstairs the following morning, the miserable cow had locked the front door and wouldn't open it. The threat of a phone call to the local dibble soon made here change her mind though, and we didn't feel to guilty about telling a fellow backpacker not to stop there on the way out.

Anyway we are now staying the in the romantically named N-Dung Hotel in Siagon which is very nice. We have had a mooch around the shops and are going on a boat trip around the Mekong delta before heading on Cambodia.

I think I have managed to link so photos onto the blog, I have various e-albums for each place we have visited, so I will rotate them around every now and then (currentl showing Luang Prabang) Hope everyone at home is well and love to everyone.

Love Pete & Urvy.

XXXX