in some kind of tarp, squealing at the top of it’s voice in what was quite obviously absolute terror. The person riding the motorbike seemed completely oblivious to this fact, and just carried on as if nothing unusual was happening. Both of us felt physically sick, and really not in the mood for eating at all. Which was quite a good job, as when we got to the place recommended by rough guide we realised that they had neglected to mention that they didn’t have any menus in English, and despite my best efforts with the menu translator, couldn’t find anything which I could guarantee was veggie, and given the recent experience didn’t want to take any chances. So it was back to the place from the day before, for another tasteless meal.

We had decided that all we wanted to do was just get out of this area, and hope that Ho Chi Minh city would be an improvement. We were picked up from the

tour place in a minibus, which was quite roomy and the driver seemed a lot more sensible. However, it turned out that this bus was just taking us to the bus station to connect with the main bus. On arrival at the bus station, we were shown to the main bus, but our bags would not fit under the seats, so the driver put them on one of the spare seats and demanded more money! When we refused he tried to throw our bags out of the back door - good idea when Hel’s bag had the camera and laptop in it!!! Hel managed to grab her bag but he then refused to set off until we had paid for an extra seat. I was livid and was ready to knock this guy’s head off - but Hel persuaded me to calm down and to just pay for the seat and forget about it, and then finally we set off, only to be stopped after fifty yards by the police and the driver arrested for something or other. Ha - there is justice after all!! So we then had to transfer to another minibus, which surprise surprise had more room for bags, and so we wouldn’t