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We arrive in Vietnam late afternoon - in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). Our stop here is only an hour though as we've elected to hit the North of the country - Hanoi - and work our way down to the centre before heading for The Philippines.

Having lost a few pairs of underpants to a laundry in Siem Reap, it seemed prudent to use the duty free shop to stock up at this International Airport. Isobel duly found me a few pairs of extra large briefs - "they should do the trick". Sadly (as I later discovered) they were Vietnamese XL size - and I barely managed to get my legs into the top hole. So replacements were sought elsewhere... (and we actually found some XXXXL boxer shorts a few days later - but alas, they were American size... If anyone has an elephant in need of boxers, or a yacht in need of a new mainsail, let me know).

We soon learnt that Vietnamese are not overly friendly towards westerners - pushing past us at every opportunity. But this turned out to be a minor irritation. The typical response to any question concerning a tour, hotel amenity, the status of air-con on a bus or train was "Yes". We soon got used to this really meaning "No" or "I don't care, just give me your money". They can be very annoying people the Vietnamese...

On the upside, the cities and countryside are beautiful. Halong Bay and Tam Coc were eye openers, Hanoi had its charms and even beleaguered Ho Chi Minh turned out to be a delight.

Jewel in the crown however, was the little tailor town of Hoi An. Here we spent a lot of money (well, a few hundred bucks each) on having made to measure outfits put together.

Here we also found edible food - something almost as rare in Vietnam as an honest answer.

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