Broke in Nam

Hoi An - a small, tiny even, town in the mid parts of Vietnam. A dangerous little town where you first arrive with no intentions of buying anything, but leave with what looks like the beginning of a whole new wardrobe. The only thing stopping me from having even more clothes tailored is that I honestly don't have any space in my backpack. Charming little town, Hoi An. With extremely sociable locals, even by Vietnamese standards, delicious specialities, and hundreds and hundreds of tailor shops, with everything and anything you can imagine. (Amongst many other, relatively more reasonable clothing items, I bought 2 jackets. That's right, not one, but TWO jackets! In JUNE!!)

Oh, btw, Halong Bay was amazing. Simply incredible. We went kayaking around the cliffhills and small islands, walked around amazing caves, met lots of people.. Which brings me to a funny series of events. We met 3 French people on the boat, and ever since, they have been appearing to follow us everywhere. We've met them continously here in Hoi An. Where ever we eat, they suddenly show up, where ever we go, they soon follow. This morning I found out they are now even staying at out hotel. They insisted jokingly that they are not following us, but they are. The second time we met them, one of the girls had broken her arm! The third time, the guy had hurt his leg badly from falling from a motorbike. They were just laughing, not able to do anything else, and said we could go home and tell our friends about the unlucky French people who kept being in accidents and hurting themselves. That's what happens when you follow people around, I guess. The last thing I said to them was "See you in Saigon!". And we probably will.

Regarding the blog title, I found that my English visa card wasn't working. Dispite having money on the account, I couldn't withdraw any money what so ever. I phoned and phoned my bank with no luck, and finally I had to wait in a telephone queue for 20 odd minutes (it's bloody expensive making international calls from Vietnam!) I was told that they had "blocked" it (AGAIN, this is the 3rd time it happens in less than 2 months) because it had been used in suspicious situations (In other words, I had been using it more than 2-3 times a month... Seriously.. in this day and age?! Of course I buy things on the internet, I'm out travelling in Asia for 2 months, of course I book flight tickets, of course I try to withdraw money from ATM's in Vietnam...). After an apology (like that's gonna make up being broke with 2 months of being stuck in South East Asia ahead of you) he said that he had made sure now that I wouldn't have any problems with my card for 30 days, but after that, he couldn't guarantee the card wouldn't be noticed by their security system and blocked again. So basically, I've got money for another 30 days... I guess it'll have to do - for now. But they do it one more time, and I'm chaning my bank first thing when I get back to England. And oh btw, the bank I'm talking about is Lloyds TSB, spread the word!

Today, we are going back to Da Nang, because we're taking the train from there tomorrow to go to Saigon. It's a long journey from Da Nang to Saigon, around 18 hours or so.

Till next time!