Da Lat

You could say this place was just like merry ol England.... same same but different well in so much as it was raining most of the time at about 3500ft above the rest of Vietnam it was a lot cooler and wetter. I even had to walk around with my fleece on in the evenings. I went on an EasyRider tour for 1 day, and came accross this really big buddah and realy angry sky, for only 2 years old he's suffering a little from dry skin, check out those cracks. Just the otherside of the car park at the temple, was the elephan waterfall. One of the stops was a silk factory, the girls start working here at 18 years old, with a starting salary of $100 per month. They put the silk worm in it's coccoon in really hot water (not boiling) to kill it, the girls then take the worm out, put it in a seperate basket (they are sold at market later) then attach part of the silk coccoon to the spindle thingy to start the whole silk making proccess. See the clip these were described as state of the art weaving machines from china (maybe they were about 50+ years ago. Either way it's a chuffing noisy job. The dragon strangley enough was at the Dragon Pagoda, and the girl tending the crops takes 5 mins to answer a text message.

Hoi An

A very big tourist town, with more tailors than pubs in your average English town. But no picture of them, try a google search for 'Tailors in Hoi An' and see what turns up. As ever I walked round the extremities town and came across a bung of kids who all had at least one thing in common: check out the necklace the kid in the pic is wearing if you need a hint. Used bullets seemed to be accessory of choice.

I also came across drying racks, of which there must have been at least 30 lined up in the street. Details of two different temples I visited, one from outside one from inside, can't remember who the blue man is but he seems to be straining a lot, and for those of you who like doorways arches this is for you.

One the way back from the dive's that I did the weather turned a little with some heavy seas and rain that felt like pins being fired at you, which was all over in an hour, the pic of the island and wave was taken about 30mins before we got hit by the storm.

Hue

The Level of touts in this place is huge so much so that you have to laugh, otherwise you'd end up hitting someone, which would end up loads of badness. Anyway once you get past them trying to take your rucksac off your back to put in the the back of their cab or strapped to a motorbike Hue is a really nice town.

There was two of us that went on a motorbike tour for the day, we came accross a ceromony which is the pic with the monks in it. Its a shame this connection is so slow otherwise I'd upload a video clip with chanting, it's very hypnotic.

The big dragon was at the far end of one of the mausuleums we visited which had an emperor entombed. The picture of the car used to belong to a monk who protested against the government reigime in the 1960's. He drove himself to the government building and burnt himself alive. The picture on the rear wall is a photo taken that day.