Suit you sir!

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We spent a few days in Hue, visiting the Citadel, doing a full day DMZ tour (far too much time on a bus), and actually finding some time to relax and enjoy our surroundings! The Demilitarized zone tour was a 12 hour day starting a 6am. We visited a museum which the size of a living room with a few rusting artefacts. Unfortunately the exhibits were heavily tainted with propaganda. A one of the pictures showed a US solider smoking a cigarette and cleaning his weapon looking pretty relaxed. The caption read ‘Look at the scared America solider hiding in his foxhole cowering from the attacking north Vietnamese army’. We were really disappointed with lunch. Vietnam is almost the noodle capital of the world and for lunch the best they could muster was super noodles! The final stop of the day took us to the Vin Moc tunnels just on the northern side of the DMZ. Due to carpet bombing by the Americans the locals decide to build a series of tunnels to live in rather than leave the area. Unfortunately the day we were there they were fumigating so we could only see a small section. Even still they were pretty impressive with sections excavated to act as living quarters and even a hospital. Any smoke form cooking fires was piped out over a long tunnel to help avoid detection.

Poor Amy was attacked by some nasty biting insect. It took a fancy to her leg - This became beautifully swollen, but thankfully now it has returned to its usual size. As usual, they didn't fancy a bite of Rob!

From Hue we took a bus to Hoi An, the place in Vietnam to get clothes made. The coach stopped at what was essentially a travel lodge service station but it backed onto a beautiful open sandy beach. We felt a little gutted that we had to get back on the bus. Before leaving Hue we treated ourselves to a couple of freshly baked cakes. These really were as tasty as they looked and we were pleased that we had bought them. They had been teasing us as we had wandered past the shop on more than one occasion looking longingly.

On arrival in Hoi An we decided to find our own accommodation rather than check out the hotel owned by the bus company. This initially resulted in a walk in the wrong direction and then a forced march back the other way. We ended up wandering through the market with our full rucksacks with everybody trying to sell us their wares. We finally caved in and agreed to be lead to a hotel by a local. It was one of the worst rooms we stayed in Vietnam. We only settled for it because we were hot and hungry. After dropping our bags we went off to explore.

Rob decided that it was time for his first hair cut of our travels. We located a small barbers on the corner of a street. Rob bargained and haggled with the man and got his fee down to 20,000d (about 60p), which he was quite pleased about. But he did not know what was coming next!!

Rob sat down in the barbers chair, quite relaxed to start with. The man did a neat job, ensuring that he hadn't missed any bits, and tidying things up with a cut throat razor (60p included a new blade). Rob thought that the job was done, but no! The guy then continued to shave off every hair on Rob's face - this included the baby hairs on his cheeks, nose and ear lobes!

Once again Rob thought that the job had been completed, but no! The guy rapidly reclined the seat, so Rob was horizontal. He put on a miners torch (he meant business), and got out the tools he required. The man was about to excavate Rob's ears! Both having been taught not to stick things in your ears, were shocked at the instruments he was using. But he was successful in his mission, and put the bits of wax he found on the back of Rob's hand - lovely!

Rob did try to say no to the guy, but at this point he no longer understood English! Rob lay there with his eyes closed, in fear that he was about to lose his hearing.

Once the operation was over, the monies were paid and we left the shop pretty sharpish, both bursting into hysterics. Not an experience that Rob is in any hurry to repeat!

We decided on arrival that for the first day we would not buy a thing and just enjoy a bit of window shopping. This proved much harder than it sounds and Amy finally caved in and bough some silk scarves and a couple of ties for a bargain of a price. With over 300 different tailors in the town everyone is after your business.

We have gone and had loads of clothes made, and today we collected them all and shipped them back to the UK. We decided on the Tailor following the recommendation by a couple of Australians who were leaving as we entered. They were really pleased with their purchases and had done some extensive research. Being lazy Brits we decided that their 14hrs worth of research was probably well spent and rather than reinventing the wheel we would take their advice. They have made a really good job of them. All the clothes were made in about 8 hours. Rob has got a suit, 5 shirts, and 2 pairs of shorts. I have got a suit, shirt, cut off trousers, trousers, a dress, skirt and a top. All of this for about 110 GBP! Not bad - now it just needs to make it to the UK!!

Tonight we are on the move again, leaving Hoi An for Nha Trang. This is going to be a 12 hour overnight bus journey - Hopefully the bus will be air conditioned as promised. Nha Trang is a seaside resort, so hopefully we shall be able to relax and enjoy the weather. Things keep cropping up to keep us busy at the moment.

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