The Vietnam catch-up episode

Phew - ok it's quarter to eleven on our last night in Saigon and I've had a few beers, but have torn myself away from both the pub and our air-conditioned room with satellite TV because I am determined to write SOMETHING on the blog before we leave this country for the wilds of Cambodia and lord knows what the internet situation is like there. So I apologise in advance for the truncated stories and fairly shoddy writing that is sure to eventuate from this fast and slipshod effort. Mainly it's about getting some photos out there onto the ether. Stories will have to come later. To name just a few I'm thinking of the internet cafe owner who karate-kicked me in Hanoi, the mentally deranged children of the sand-dunes in Mui Ne and the roving bookseller in Saigon who carries around about 50 books in a stack tied together by shoelaces, offers me photocopied novels and marijuana about 17 times per day and did his block when he came to our dinner table last night and saw that we'd bought a book from some other vendor and then tried to buy it back off us!

Anyhoo photos is the reason we're all here so let's get things started. Hue, old imperial capital of Vietnam chock full of pagodas, citadels and war-site along with millions of guys salivating at the prospect of taking you on motorbike tours of the aforementioned attractions. We incurred the wrath of our hotel boy by having the temerity to take someone else's motorbike tour who we were recommended. But it was cool we saw the world famous "kid tree of Hue"

Insence makers

Conical hat makers (and I'm delighted to say we've resited the obvious temptation to buy such hats and wear them all over the country -although I can't say the same about some of the travellers we've seen. I don't know, it feels like coming to Aus and walking around in a slouch hat dangling corks)

Plus all kinds of other cool stuff