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We’re now in Hoi An which is about half way up from HCMC in the south and Hanoi in the north. It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site with buildings going back to the 17th century. Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and other traders would have come here as they did to Melaka where we visited in Malaysia. One thing we have noticed is that it is much cooler in the evenings and people here are wearing more clothing, puffer jackets, anoraks and woolly hats.  We have a pool at the hotel and even after a full days sun it was freezing!!

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It’s great that the buildings are not “prettified” and you can see them “raw”. It’s also interesting to see a slightly, and we mean slightly, quieter city. There is one disappointment, we have seen our first glimpse of the one thing we feared in Vietnam. Pushy traders wanting you to “visit my shop, just lookie and see”. We’ve also experienced the first instance of “how much can I rip off the tourist” syndrome. Unlike HCMC nothing in the shops is labelled. Instead, when you ask how much something is the price is dependant on what they think you can afford. Twice the price of HCMC is not unusual and when you laugh and walk away suddenly the price miraculously falls. Neil refuses to do business this way. He doesn’t mind doing “deals” in a market but if a shop tries to con him he tells them so and walks away despite the fact that the price is now reasonable.

Note the picture of the two dogs. They were tethered so that they could not leave the chairs. A guy with a very posh camera and a huge lens tried to take a picture of them very close up. The dog on the right turned around to bear his backside which made us and a family of locals burst out laughing. I took this pic to see if I was to get the same treatment.…no, he must have liked me.

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Today we went on yet another tourist trip (we’re getting to be quite the little tour guides pet!!), to My Son, another World Heritage Site going back around 1200 years. It’s the most important site of the ancient kingdom of Champa, and is a collection of ruins, some in fairly good condition and others obliterated by US bombing, stretched across a small valley surrounded by jungle and mountains.

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We were surprised to find that the tour company had used a ‘sleeper’ bus for the trip, so we had a relaxed trip on our fully flat beds at the back! Pity it was only an hours journey……We also chose the option to go back to Hoi An by boat and didn’t realise that lunch was included, so all round a great day out for $7 each!

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