I said " I dont want your Phuocan sister"

The hotel we are staying in in Hoi An (in Central Vietnam) is very nice like a $200 hotel at home - but only $35. But is is not the one we reserved. The Phuoc An Hotel on the city was what we ordered. But they put us here, in its 'sister' hotel - 4 km out of town. But "Much better, nice river views, more modern, free bicycles, bigger room, etc". So at 10 at night we caved in and stayed there. They do not understand "I dont want your Phuoc An sister !"

But the service is great. Every move is watched to see if you need something. Kitty has trained one of the staff to collect her knife on the first bounce, when she knocks it off the table, and immediately replace it with a new one. They were also happy to change our large room with the great river view for a smaller one at the back overlooking the cemetary - at no extra cost - when Kitty requested it.

We have been in Hoi An for 3 days and only just begun sight-seeing. It is a town of 100s of tailors. And Kitty has been buying jackets, underwear, shoes, pants, etc from them all - with me in tow. And every time I even look at a catalog Kitty gives me a tongue-lashing - "Why are you looking at that !", "Thats entirely the wrong colour", "You already have one of those that you never wear" "We need to save weight for MY things", and "It wont turn out right". So I have decided to give up and become a nudist - Kitty has bought HEAPS and I have bought ABSOLUTELY nothing ! (Well I did sneak in a pair of undies... and some socks... and 4 polo shirts, and 3 casual shirts and 5 pairs of trousers (bugger! Kitty is now nagging me about the 5th pair ....). Anyway she has reduced me to having to drink multiple mango dacquiris and have multiple massages to calm my frayed nerves (and frayed ears).

Hoi An is an old sea-port with a lot of Chinese influence. It has a large beach/resort area a few km down the road, an old heritage area (My Son- a 'Champa' site which is 1000 to 2000 years old and very historic - which is why the US bombed it as a parting gesture), lots of good (and cheap) food and the weather is fine. The rice-fields, river, palm trees, etc. finally look like the REAL Vietnam - you know - the one in "Apocalypse Now". A good place to come for a beach holiday rather than Byron Bay - and probably cheaper overall.

Well the end is near (not just of my marriage - but also of the holiday) tomorrow am we fly to Saigon (aka HCMC) and tomorrow night - to home. In Vietnam we can create this blog but we cannot actually see the blog and its comments (we dont know why). WE hope you readers are not having this trouble but if you are - please let us know by e-mail

Regards
Murphy