Pee, Po, Belly, Bum, Drawers!

No, the title isn't another of my attempts at phonetics, nor some quaint Vietnamese custom we've learnt about.   It's just the rudest set of expletives I can express publicly - especially given that my mum and dad are reading this! [With apologies to Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, whose full lyrics can be seen by Googling the title here: 'Ma's out, Pa's out, Let's talk rude! "Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers"'].

But we really wanted to give vent to our frustration and sadness that our lovely friend, Cynthia, is snow-bound in Bridport and can't get out to join us as planned, and excitedly anticipated, for months now.   You may remember that she was to join us, as well as her own son John and daughter Jo, to celebrate Christmas and New Year together.   Amazing how the weather half a world away can mess up one's plans. Though we know she's bitterly disappointed, Cynth is, as ever, taking the blow in an amazingly positive way - and she's already virtually filled up her Christmas social calendar with good friends and dinner invitations in and around Bridport!

(By the way, sorry mum and dad, I don't really mean to paint you both as straight-laced puritans ...... just having a little fun at your expense to lighten the tone!)

We're already here in Hoi An, our Christmas and New Year meeting place, having made a swift dash from Hanoi over a shorter period than planned because of what WE regarded as the poor weather further north - dull, overcast, drizzly and occasionally cold - though I know it won't elicit any sympathy from those of you in the UK if I tell you that we even had to wear a fleece for two consecutive days!

Apart fron the dismal weather, though, we'd found the culture shock of manic Hanoi after tranquil Luang Prabang just a little too much to take.   We'd also made a big mistake in deviating from the Lonely Planet Guide's hotel recommendations, and ended up in a really horrible, dirty hotel there, where we foolishly stayed for one night before getting the first bus out of town the next morning.   Our hotel receptionist organised the bus for us - two hours to Ninh Binh, she said, the next largest town on the map, leaving at 08.30.  What she omitted to mention was that the bus she'd booked us on was an organised tour, and we found ourselves unwittingly visiting one of the three main tourist sights 12k north of Ninh Binh, an ancient citadel called Hoa Lu, along with the rest of the bemused fee-paying tour members.   But that delay in getting to Ninh Binh after nearly 5 hours rather than 2 was probably a blessing in disuise.   Ninh Binh was decidedly grim!   We hadn't properly read between the lines of the LPG's description, which, we later realised, was implying that the only reason for visiting this town was to get out of it as soon as possible to one of the three main tourist sights in the surrounding area.   So, after a couple of days there - in, fortunately, a rather swanky LPG-recommended hotel - we headed south to Hue on an overnight sleeper train, where the weather was still not good, and thence rather quickly by bus to Hoi An.   Here, we're pleased to tell you (but, again, you won't want to know) that the weather is hot and sunny, and the town, which we loved when we first visited with Intrepid in October, remains just about the most picture-postcard and fascinating town we've seen in the whole of Vietnam.  

We've already spent a couple of days bicycling around some of the nearby pottery-making , vegetable-growing and fishing villages, enjoyed a beautiful Full Moon festival on the lantern-strewn river that runs through the town, laughed at a really strange Vietnamese Ronnie Corbett look-a-like entertaining the crowd with a kind of sing-a-long bingo game on the riverfront, encountered two young couples in full traditional custome to celebrate their engagement, lounged on the beach and swum in the sea, eaten some of the best fish and seafood meals anywhere, and had a few clothes and shoes made for us.   And we still have 10 more days before we leave!   As for the engaged couples, by the way, coincidentally we'd just been reading in the local daily newspaper about the burgeoning over here of 'professional gift-bearers' for these events.   Apparently, it's the custom over here for the boy to arrange for younger boys of his acquaintance, and for the girl to find younger girls of her acquaintance, to carry engagement gifts to their girl/boy-friend.   However, many traditional families also believe that if a young person is called upon to do this more than three times, they won't find a partner of their own.   So, in the shortage caused by this belief, many more 'modern-thinking' young men and women are now setting up their own businesses to offer their services, and make some money for themselves.   What did we say earlier about the Vietnamese people's entrepreneurialism ...?

Well back to us, we're still planning on meeting up over Christmas with Cynth's son John, and his girlfriend, Liz, as well as our nephew, Dominic, who's flying in from Ho Chi Minh City, though his Egyptian girlfriend, and Jo in Vientiane, will not now be joining us after all.   And then there were five ....
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Until we post again, let's just wish to you all - and especially, in the circumstances, Cynthia - a very Happy Christmas.

Forward to a Socialist Future!

Vietnamese Engagement Garb

Vegetable Village

Fishing Village

Vietnamese Loch Ness Monster

Can He See Where He's Going??

There Were Some Nice Parts of Ninh Binh!

Saxa Claus

Thien Nga Hotel Vegetable Garden (from our balcony)

Yet More Markets! (Hoi An)

Hoa Lua Temple (that we hadn't planned to see!)

What Do They Sell!?

Night Train to Hue

Self-Portrait on Night Train

This Beast Started to Charge as I Snapped! (And Ran!)

Another Fishing Village

Fishing 'Bath Tubs', An Bang Beach

An Bang Beach - Where We Swam in December!

Pottery Village - Novel Method of Rotation!

........ in a Country That's Never Seen Any Snow!