that palm tree is in a "no parking" zone

I can't believe we spent ten days in Hoi An. It has to be the most comfortable town in the country. On the river it is possible to be mesmerized and caressed by the cooling breeze for hours. Beware! The restaurants are some of the best in the country and most are sinfully cheap. I have lots of fantastic recipes brewing in my mind, like daydreams of our idyllic stay.

My Son was average. (I'm so spoiled by Angkor!) We were disheartened by the dishonest tour guide who stole thousands of dong from our bus by insisting that no one could buy their own tickets, buying an insufficient amount of them and pocketing the remaining funds. The guards counted the tickets and the people frantically as the guide hurried us through the entrance. When the guard pointed out that the ticket/person ratio was off the guide insisted some of us weren't even in his tour! C'est la Vietnam! The complex was destroyed by the Americans during the war and while I'm sure it was once magnificent, now it is literally just a pile of red bricks which makes the whole scene look like a collection of colonial buildings fell down.

We returned down the Hoi An river by boat while enjoying a bizarre lunch of cold, sticky rice covered in fat sugar crystals and peanuts.

On the 10th we woke up at 5:30 and rode bikes to Cao Dai beach (part of China beach). We splashed around in the temperate ocean and laid on the bleached sand for hours. The experience was everything you could want from a day at the beach. Long fishing boats trolled the waters a short distance out, the waves teased and tossed us, the air was dry and hot, the only sound was the strong pull of the tide's retreat. It was blissful and we were only approached once by a woman selling fruit. We packed up and rode off when a girl told us we couldn't leave our bikes padlocked to a palm tree on the sand any longer.

Even after such a long stay it was hard to leave.

Our flight last night was a half hour late arriving from Hanoi and an hour late departing for Saigon. As we waited for a boarding call feisty rats scurried around the displays of Pringles and Oreos. Though it was a mostly empty plane they had seated every passenger in a large clump, three to a row in the center of the aircraft. When the service cart came down the aisle our row was totally ignored. Pacific Airlines: Just so you know, you're in Vietnam.

We arrived at the hotel around midnight. The walls in our room were completely covered in ants this morning, which was awesome. Also, the bathroom door fell off and hit Jessica in the head. And the TV doesn't have any sound. So we kindly suggested that we should move rooms and headed out to pick up our plane tickets.

Monday we fly to Tokyo, where our layover is ten hours. Narita is one of my favourite airports and I am seriously looking forward to being "stuck" there. The airline is providing us with a hotel because of the long delay. I have promised Jessica that we can have sushi at the airport because otherwise she will make me eat sushi in Saigon, which does not appeal. Then we are on to New York. My despair is only mollified when I remember who will be waiting for us there...