From Hoi An to Nha Trang & Saigon

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Howdy.

Righto, from Hanoi I headed south to Hoi An. Its just one big tailor shop really....with a couple of sights (Marble Mountains and the Cham ruins) and a beach thrown in for good measure. Probably spent too long here, but in no hurry so not to worry. Hired a motorbike for a day to do the sights, started well but had two blowouts and got myself royally lost.....didn't end well. Not sure how I got lost but I was miles wrong....had to go village to village asking "Hoi An...Hoi An", they all seemed to begin their helpfull response with a "he's fucked" kind of look on their faces. A 45 min ride took nearly 3 hours. The second blowout was no where near a repair shop so I just left the bike where it was, took a picture of the place and hitched a ride back to Hoi An. Let the owner of the bike go get it.

From Hoi An I took yet another train (must be into the thousands by now) to Nha Trang. This is a beach resorty type of place....only came here to get a few dives in. Dive sites weren't bad but not as good as expected.....visibility was only around 7 meters and saw no big stuff. Plenty of nice corals though.

Then down to Ho Chi Minh.......Saigon to everyone here still........"defeat......what defeat". Another biggish city, hot and very wet. Heavens open up on the stroke of 6:30 every night, good thunder and lightning sessions too. Went to the War Remnants museum but forgot to take the camera.....which probably wasn't such a bad thing, pretty gruesome place.....not sure you'd want to see any photos frome there. The anti-American theme is bordering laughable. Got to much in the end, sick of reading the captions to all the photos.

Also did the Cu Chi tunnels tour which was well worth the $5. The main thing you realise from this tour is not the skill and determination of the locals to build and live in these tunnels....its how fecken small they must all have been......could barely get one foot into one of the access holes, and had to crawl through on hands and knees when I could get in to a hole made bigger for the tourists.

Last night in Saigon tonight, heading to Phnom Penh in Cambodia tomorrow......another border crossing......what joy awaits there I wonder? Only USD10 for the bus trip though.....bargain.

Leave you to it.

Cheers m'dears,
Shane,
Space Adventurer.

ps. Has been about 2 weeks without any product in the hair.......getting all native man.

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Photos

Mum....never complain again about carrying the shopping inside from the car
She was only about 3 foot tall to this woman.....and about 145 years old

Goin nuts on the AK47
10 rounds.....quickest 10 quid I ever did spend. The earmuffs were old headphones with the wires taken out....ears were ringing for 15 mins after this

Cu Chi Tunnels
If I was VC I think I would have had to defect.....my foot would barely make it into the tunnel opening

Hired this for a day
And had 2 blowouts.....second one I just ditched the bike at a cafe, took a picture of the place, and told the hotel they can go pick it up......was very fucked off at this stage.

Cham Ruins at Hoi An
Not bad but not overly exciting.....just a bunch of red bricks really

This bloke fixed my first lot of punctures
10,000 Dong each puncture....had 2....roughly AUD$3 for half hours labour

This photo is for Kieran
He was always complaining about getting dripped on by the condensation. You should buy some of these Key.

Madonna Rocks off Nha Trang
Went diving here....supposed to look like Madonnas jugs. Saw some nice soft corals but bugger all big stuff. Supposed to be 1 shark around but didn't make an appearance