Hoi An, Vietnam

This is our fourth day in little Hoi An, and we haven't stopped sweating since we got here... definitely noticing an increase in temperature as we head south! We're also frequently getting quite heavy rain in the afternoons or evenings, which cools things down a bit. The Vietnamese here are not staring at us so much anymore and the secret photo-taking-of-Catherine-by-old-men has stopped too - hooray! I guess that's given us some idea of what Malaysia is probably going to be like. I'm going to learn to say "Please stop staring at my friend" in Malaysian before we get there. I better start practising now!

Hoi An's sttraction lies in its waterfront and the beach, which is less than 5km away (we cycled there and back yesterday without getting killed - success!). The sea is very clear and the sand's gorgeous too, but the jellyfish and women selling peanuts, bananas and jewellery can get a bit annoying. In town there are a million tailors and shoemakers who you can order clothes from and have them customised, which we have been experimenting with.. I ordered a shirtdress, which they made in the material I had chosen for the lining. It looks...interesting... C got some sandals that turned out well and some shorts that are a bit shorter than she wanted but very stylish. Other shops have silk lanterns, pretty china dishes and paintings. We've tried the local cuisine, which is typically wonton dumplings in different sizes and flavours - quite exciting as you don't really know what you're getting!

By the way my oesophagus is completely healed now - the trick seems to have been to stop taking most of the medication apart from my 'proton-pump inhibitor' pills, which reduced my stomach acid (and appetite!) and I've finished taking now. The Vietnamese hospital was not too bad actually - in case anyone is picturing a dirty crowded place where no one spoke English, it wasn't like that at all.

Just to ruin the structure and logic of this entry entirely and ignore everything I learnt in English Lit, I'm going to add a couple of random sights and experiences I think we forgot to mention:

• Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in Hanoi, where the queues to see his body snaked out across the parking lot and onto the pavement. They worship him! We had to hand over our water and cameras and were bossed about by the guards - they even shoved us along. Interesting though! You'll see our photos of the crowds and the exterior of the monument at some point...
• Pak Ou caves (daytrip from Luang Prabang) - a kind of graveyard for abandoned buddha statues that were damaged or went out of fashion. We took a boat to the caves which were carved into the cliffs and stopped on a whiskey-making village on the way. They bottle snakes and lizards in it for any tourist who imagines that they can carry a bottle of the stuff home!
• Lao massage (Luang Prabang). When we got off the slow boat it seemed like a good idea to be pummeled a bit after sitting on hard benches for two days! For 2 pounds we got a one hour 'traditional Lao body massage' which involved tiny but strong Lao women kneading our backs, arms, fingers, toes, neck, bum... Not exactly relaxing but did the trick! As far as we cang gather the Thai massage is even more energetic. We'll see whether we dare to go for it when we're back in Thailand!