Chimp In A 3 Piece Suit

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Hanoi is hard to descibe: the roads are almost impossible to cross because of the unrelenting weight of traffic driving on both sides of the road in both directions; there are people constantly, constantly shouting at you to but their stuff (which gets very dull very quickly); the drivers are compulsed to use their horn whenever there is any justification, which results in an almost never ending din of car horns; and everything happens on the pavement: cooking, eating, showering, selling, buying, sharpening your machete, welding gates etc. It is very very overwhelming, unfortunately words cannot do it justice.
So we quickly escaped to the peace of Hao Long Bay, an hour south-east of Hanoi its a world heritage site and incredibly beautiful. The water is flat as can be and the landscape is incredible. We spend 2 days and 1 night swimming, snorkeling, going through caves and just watching the world go by. It was a welcome change from Hanoi and we were in no hurry to get back. Unfortunately we are in a hurry, generally, because we only have 9 days in Vietnam, so we made haste back to Hanoi, and then haste again, south, to Hoi An.
Hoi An is much, much more relaxed than Hanoi and, also, the cheapest place in Asia (probably the world) to have tailor made clothes and shoes. Well, we couldn't resist it; I had a suit (35 pounds), 3 silk shirts (6 pounds each), a silk tie (1.5 pounds) and a pair of vegan casual and walking boats (15 pounds each) tailor made for me. Alice got 4 shirts, a dress and 2 pairs of shirts made. Neither of us had ever had anything tailor made, let alone a tie (8cm wide) or stilettoes, it was all very exciting.
The weather was, however, disgustingly hot, and we have been unable to find an oppotunity to wear our new clothes. Hoi An itself is a quiant old market town and we really enjoyed spending a few days there. We splashed out and got a posh hotel - 7.5 pound for both of us a night - with a swiming pool, and we were lucky enough to hang out with a really nice Australian couple who had been there before and showed us the ropes.
Unfortunately then followed a 26 hour coach ride to Saigon. There's not a lot to say it was awful, well it was probably as good as it could have been but 26 hours is too long to be on a bus, Alice particularly suffered, and we have resolved never to spend that long on a bus again.
Saigon seems a bit more relaxed than Hanoi, the streets are larger so the din of people and traffic doesn't feel so claustraphobic. Today we went to the Reunification Palace and to the War Remnants museum, which is essentially an account of the 2 Vietnam wars and both were interesting, although the war museum is one of those 'lose your faith in humanity' places.
Vietnam is cool, but a lot of my mind is taken up with the fact i will be home in 15 days, after so long i can barely get my head around that idea...

Chris+Alice

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