Hoi An - the city of a thousand lanterns

Happy hour, if you don't look you'll never know and you promised to buy later chime from ever street corner from the street sellers. Wherever you sit you will be approached.  No I don't want peanuts, a fan, a doll or a fridge magnet!!!! These beautiful streets are lined with old Chinese merchant shops and are painted a gorgeous hue of mustard yellow, at night the city comes alive with the glow of lanterns from the shops, restaurants and street lights. Unesco protection ensures that there is little change here with a no car zone in the old streets it's a mix of cycles and people on foot walking through these old streets.
I had my annual bike ride and spent Boxing Day cycling along rice fields, where the farmer rode the water buffalo and went to the beach. Then returning back to town we cycled through villages and across coconut groves and past fishermen on the rivers. Hoi Am is a very special place and tourism makes it one of the most wealthy areas in the whole of Vietnam. So no I don't want to buy a lantern, have clothes made or buy a book mark, but I do want to wander around this magical city and explore it's living history!

I'm a millionaire !!!!

My wallet is now bulging with 2,000,000 Vietnamese dong. After a night train heading up north we're now relaxing in the soviet suburb of Nha Trang. There's Russians everywhere! All the restaurant signs are in Russian and there's Russian hotels, with peak season here for them to escape the harsh winter and come to lie on the beach and soak up some sun rays. Our hotel is amazing and immediately we stand out bringing in our rucksacks and quickly make full use of the sauna and steam room to relax after our night train journey. This is living the high life! 

Every man is equal

This appears in the American Declaration of Independence and was the first words shown in the harrowing yet incredible war revenants museum in HCMC. As the world protested against the war, the atrocities that went one were captured by the war photographers. This resulted in some of the most powerful pictures that I had ever seen, and coupled with an event in the museum for the opening of an exhibition of war paintings, with army generals and war survivors taking part, made it all the more real.
The chemical weapons room was full of distressing pictures of its effects, and staggering statistics of the sheer volume  of chemical warfare used. Children sharing the same birth year as me had their independence and Normal quality of life  taken away. Horrific birth defects were still showing into the late 90's, so the scars of war carry on. Many of the street beggars are agent orange victims, so the horror of war is still there to see.
The antidote to this was to have a fabulous cup of coffee and do our own walking tour of the city.