We crossed the China/Vietnamese border on the 11th of September without any hassles!! We had heard that the guards on the vietnamese side were great fans of bribery and corruption so we were a little worried!! No problems at all! We hung around the Train station in Lao Cai for the day drifting off to sleep in between terrible games of Rummy and Strip Jack Naked(???) Card games from another era! Does anybody know how to play these games anymore?? Better off!

I got my hair washed and gave the delighted teenager 10 yuan...less than a pound.Lorraine joked around with the other onlookers and got the usual questions.

"Are you married?" "How old are you" and " "Have you a boyfriend??"

We arrived in Hanoi around five in the morning and were lured into a cheap and decidedly dodgy looking establishment. At that stage, we didn't care and crashed for a few hours! Breakfast consisted of deadly banana pancakes and french baguettes!! Hanoi has a very french athmosphere thanks to its colonial past and this is most evident in its architecture and its cafes.

All excitement evolves around Hoan Kiem lake near the old quarter. Tourists mingle with the street vendors and cyclo drivers holding on for dear life to all their money.The area has a reputation for pickpockets and thieves so I was constantly on the alert!! No problems!

I could seriously consider living here. The pace is fairly easy going.The people are friendly and the food is great. The nightlife wasn't all that inspiring though. We checked out a few places, had a few beers and moved on. I've turned into a real connoisseur of Canadian music so you can imagine my delight when the DJ insisted on playing The Tragically Hip and Sarah MacLachlan!!You have to have heard of them!!!!!

On Monday morning, we took a train up to Haiphong, a port city three hours north east from Hanoi and then we ferried it across the Gulf of Tonkin to Catba Island.What a place!! We had ambitions to hire Honda bikes and tour the island but all they had were heavy russian motorbikes. We decided to get guides when Lorraine fell off the bike during a trial run. Forget that!!!!!Catba Island luckily has been given a National Park status so shouldn't alter all that much in the years ahead!!

We popped into the local market for fruit and I had an unusual experience!! As a woman travelling, I'm always paranoid about men!!No walking down dark alleys and I always carry my swiss army knife!!You never know!!Gosh, did I get the surprise of my life in the market. I was molested and roughed up NOT by the men but the women. One older woman grabbed my leg and wouldn't let go. She giggled with her other pals and they had a great laugh at my expense!

I grabbed her leg and in the end we all had a good laugh at each others varying shapes and sizes. Grabbing legs are acceptable(?!) but grabbing breasts ??? A young twenty something made a grab for me. I was horrified. Then she did it again!!! Now!! Apparently, they are envious of our western bodies and would love to have bigger breasts. Okay, so Vietnamese women are very skinny...but I'm not convinced. I felt oddly violated!!

The following day was spent on an isolated beach, swimming and getting a tan and on wednesday, we got the ferry back to the mainland.

After a week of banana pancakes, squirting children with waterpistols during the mid autumn festival and roaring at Cyclo drivers to leave us in peace, we both got on different planes to different parts of Asia. Lorraine to Bangkok and I to Hong Kong. Lorraine should be back in Galway later tonight!!

I really wish I could have stayed in Vietnam a bit longer. It has such an interesting past albeit tragic. Remnants of the Vietnam War are everywhere.Vietcong gear..military hats can be bought on all market stalls. The vietnamese men like to wear them. There is so much I don't know about ..quite embarrassing considering that I'm, in the eyes of the education system in Ireland, qualified to teach history!

The french arrived in the late 1850s and after a few years of battling out with the locals signed a treaty that gave them a section of the Mekong Delta region.Then the communists set up base with the help of a vietnamese chap, Ho Chi Minh!(You can go along to see his embalmed body at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum) I fought the urge!!

Japan occupied the country during world war II and the only people interested in resisting them were the Commies. After the war, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent which led to an immediate french attempt to reassert its control.

It ended in a division of the country into North Vietnam- communist and South Vietnam - Republic. Fear of communism taking over the world led the americans into the battle between north and south. The Vietnam War ended with hundreds of thousands of american soldiers dead and South Vietnam surrendering to Communist forces. Repression followed and thousands of southerners fled for their lives. When I was taking the train down to Hanoi, the jungles of the war films kept running through my mind. Any minute, I was expecting Charlie Sheen to come out from under a bush....the scenery was straight out of 'Platoon'.!!

I'm looking out the window here and skyscrapers are a shock to my system. Only a day here and I'm looking forward to getting down to Indonesia.

I'm meeting a friend of Veronica Daly's later on this evening. Veronica or Vickie to her friends lives in Derryinver, Letterfrack. A mad englishwoman is how I describe her ! A mad but wonderful person! She gave me Maggies phone number and warned me to call her. We're meeting later on in the Foreign Correspondents club. I'm really looking forward to having a bitch about our mutual friend. She should be here in Hong Kong to meet up with us. We came to the conclusion over the phone that Vickie is terrified of flying!!! If you know her, give her a teasing about it!!!

I'm off to meet two friends in the Penninsula Hotel on the other side of HK now. The arrangement was made over five weeks ago. I really hope they turn up!!

Until next time,

Take Care,

Ita

"We were wondering why the local bai women kept annoying us to buy bracelets until we were informed that they are the main drug suppliers!"
(9 Sept.)

"One week later and we're in Yunnan province, South Western China."
(31 Aug.)

"Beijing is huge with streets that go on forever..."
(22 Aug.)

"In Beijing three days and just about settling into the swing of things."
(15 Aug.)

"And so I leave Korea..."
(12 Aug.)

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