Here Be Dragons

Hello again. We're still in Hoi An, really enjoying the chilled out vibe here. Its a pretty town on the banks of a river with lots of old houses that are unchanged since the place was a port back in the 17th century. The town was undamaged in the war, and has a real charm about it.

 

At night time though its anything but chilled out. There's some kind of autumn festival going on, and every night all of the boys in town parade around in dragon costumes, banging their drums and clogging up the streets. Its a really amazing atmosphere, and some of the boys' exploits as they climb up 10 ft vertical poles supported by their friends are a little scary!

 

We're going to stay here until Tuesday, as on Monday night there is a full moon festival, when all the electricity is turned off and the town is lit solely by lanterns - its supposed to be beautiful.

 

OK, what else have we been up to? We went to Me Son this morning, which is a ruined 11th century temple in the jungle, which was really nice. Yesterday we attempted to have a day on the beach, but that was a bit thwarted by the weather - really strong winds off the South China Sea. We managed to get a bit of sunbathing in, but the tan still ends at the shoulders and knees....

 

The food and drink is still lovely and amazingly cheap. We've begun to mix in a Western meal now and then - there's only so many days in a row that you can eat rice and noodles. We really like the local speciality here though, which is a noodle and pork dish called Cao Lau.

 

We've decided to fly down to Saigon. The alternative was a 15 hour train ride departing at lunchtime and arriving at 4am in the morning - not nice! The flights were only 25 quid each, so it was a no-brainer really.

 

I think that's it for now. We're both well and enjoying ourselves. Only seven and a half months to go.....