Big update

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Right, now that I'm on the mend and managed to get out a bit I'll put in a full update.

Vietnamese Music - while most of it is asian soundnding versions of the sort of sickly poppy bilge the UK would usually submit as a Eurovision entry or worse - rave and hip hop! On my last day in Hue 3 days ago I was given an unexpoected treat - all day! The day must have been some sort of Festival as I cant imagine why anyone would hire a band for 12 hours during the day or why a band would play for that long albeit with regular 20 minute breaks - the sound was, beleive it or not, original 60's Ska with asian sounding lyrics - these geezers really knew their stuff - Prince Buster and Harry J and the Allstars numbers - they even got into some early reggae stuff too! Ill as I felt I was skankin' man! Their brass section alone was amazing - a lot of real class blowing going on and the drummer was 'rock steady' - this is music that was missed by most Brits at the time (except the Mods and Skins of course!). I don't know how it's taken hold here but it has and it sounds great!

Moving swiftly on to Hoi An. I went out at 09:00 for breakfast - fell on my feet in a great little cafe where I met Nick from Scotland who works for a charity here and has lived here a while. It seems that Hoi An is already a tourist trap - made worse by being made a UNESCO World Heritage site several years ago. Anyway, not passing up the opportunity tpo get some real genuine info I start chatting to him. Apparently, despite my Northern guides, Vinh and Chung, assuring me I would be too hot 'down South' I have arrived in the rainy season! Last weeks sweltering temps in Hue were very abnormal for this time of year and what I've experienced in the last 4 days is the norm at the moment - i.e constant fine soaking rain with sub 20C daytime temps. I had earlier bought a cheap raincoat type thing that everyone seems to wear here when it's wet - cheap at 10,000VD but totally useless, in fact you not only get wet from the outside your sweat is captured inside - tomorrow I do without - I won't be any wetter and I won't get overheated!

Other snippets of info is that there are 400+ tailors here - the big 3 make serious dosh from the tourist trade and yes they really can copy anything in a day! He also mentioned that there are ongoing health problems linked to the defoliant Agent Orange that was stored in massive quantities at Da Nang - apparently, and surprisingly there are very good relations between the Vietnamese and Americans on issues like this - eased and lubricated by lots of dollars and foriegn expertise I suspect. And why shouldn't America make amends for using such vile weapons in the first place? Lets see if they do the same in Iraq and Afganistan when those conflicts are over! Let's hope so, or even better they learn to stop bullying other nations when it suits them and their National interest - I can think of several nasty dictators as bad as Saddam H they've done absolutley nothing about so it's not a moral issue - try Kim Il Jong 2 in North Korea (too scared of upsetting China), PaPa Doc Du Vallier in Haiti - why bother? no oil! Burmese Military junta - won't touch it because big american oil companies are already well in there as long as they pay the repressive regime. Make the American bullies pay for the damage they've done is what I say! Told you I was feeling better ;-)

Nick also says he find Vietnamese women very materialistic on the whole and you really have to be careful getting involved with one - he's tried 3 before finding one who wasn't primarily motivated by money. There are some strange choices being made here too by the locals - they live in housing that quite frankly is well below what this country can afford but they will spend an entire months wages just to possess the latest mobile phone or gadget - whether this is driven by a belief in the power of technology to change things for the good or just fashion I don't know. Nick says it's definitely the latter in most cases! They even get Sky here and very sadly know who Manchester United are - but they also know all the English Premier clubs and the main players, even Hull City! - this is Global branding alright and rather sad in my opinion - the World is becoming a smaller place with less variety and more conformity to the Advertising and Marketing mens Global Brand Vision - it's a con - read 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein and get on the next anti capitalist demo - but no fighting or criminal damage please - peaceful civil disobedience - it worked for India! - gosh! I really am back on form ;-)

We part after being assured that the nearby beaches are good when weather is fine and there are some out of the way ones depending on how far I want to walk or cycle - I just hope we get one good day but I wouldn't bet on it!

I have decided to leave Hoi An by air rather than train - it's much quicker and cleaner and they have proper loos on board! I may even just stay here and skip Saigon. Food is far better here than Hue and pace of life more relaxed and less noisy - a good place to make a full recovery.

I had a 2 hour wander around using a local map of dubious scale - the main market was very crowded and noisy, smells of cooking and fish, stalls selling everything the locals need for day to day living - it has a more central place in Life here than in many developed Western countries. There is enough to keep me happy for a week! More tomorrow folks.

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Comments

[Mum]

Shades of your teens
So pleased that you are feeling so much better. Hoi An sounds like a great place to chill out and I seem to remember that was your goal in the first place. Was the music maybe for a wake as I seem to recall that funerals in Singapore were very noisy affairs? Or it could have been a wedding!

[Granville]

hello
Who, or what, are Manchester United ?