Relaxation to madness, Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh

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We are now in Ho Chi Minh, back to the land of madness!! I'll fill you in on Hoi An though first! To be really honest there's not a lot to fill you in on, we really used the 4 days there to completely chill out and recharge our batteries, it was really needed!! We even had a bd day (eek!!!) on Sunday we chilled out watching films all day only going out to have dinner lol but it was perfect. On Monday though we got a moped for the day and headed to the beach. It was so so windy though, apparently another storm was on its way (Hoi An got hit by the typhoon a couple of weeks ago). We got to the beach and were only able to sit out for about an hour or so, mats on the chairs were blowing everywhere and the tide was coming in soaking the beach and lots of people's belongings! you could see the sand blowing everywhere when looking down the beach, literally it looked like a sand storm!!

We headed back to town for lunch to our favourite Al Fresco's and because we'd been there so many times they gave us a free desert each haha. It was just so nice to have food that slightly reminded us of home and was cooked really well. I'd definitely recommend people travelling through Hoi An to go in there for food, the manager was lovely and her husband was the chef. After our last meal there we headed back out on the bike and went for a drive along the coast. We stopped off and walked onto the beach, it wasn't for tourists though it was full of locals fishing. We think it was badly hit by the storm too as there were trees ruined and lots of rubbish everywhere, the beach looked like it had seen better days for sure.

We left Hoi An yesterday (Tuesday) And flew to Ho Chi Minh we got here about 6.00pm and have never see traffic like it, even MORE mopeds than anywhere else we have been. It's the biggest city we have visited in Vietnam and it's manic here, we aren't overly keen, but I think we are just getting a bit bored of Asia now and are missing western living and food!although today was good, we visited the Cu Chi tunnels where the Vietnamese fought against the Americans. We got to see the tunnels that they built, the weapons they used, how they lived and the traps they used against the US. It was so intereating and brought back memories of History GCSE! The tunnels were tiny for us to get though and they had been made bigger for tourists so we couldn't even imagine how tiny they were before And how tiny you had to be to get through them!! The tunnel was 250km long and took them 20 years to build, everything they did was so clever using their guerrilla tactics against the Americans. We both let our inner geeks come out and loved it! We also had a go at shooting me with a AK47 and Brad an M1 we had 10 bullets each, I managed about 3!? Pathetic lol but it really hurt! So brad got to use the rest of mine and all if his, was pretty cool to experience!

On our way back to Ho Chi Minh we stopped off at a handicraft village. Is is where I'm a bit lost for words really, it's basically a place the government have set up for handicapped and disabled people to live and work. They make logs of things such as vases bowls and paint pictures. However we felt like we were walking through a slave house and it made us both feel a bit uneasy, I felt like we were in another generation where just because you might be disabled your hid away in a secret place. We only stayed about 5 minutes and left as soon as we could!!

That's it so far guys, we plan to go along the Mekong delta tomorrow and then head to Cambodia so will update you soon.

Missing you all and love you lots back home B&K xxxxxx

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