a cockroach! a cockroach!

Today (Wednesday 18 February) is probably a good day to be leaving Hoi An given that it is pissing down with rain.

I am getting the train down to Nha Trang, which takes a quite considerable eight hours. You can fly there from nearby Danang and it takes less than an hour, but I don't want to do that. For some, getting to the next place as quickly as possible is more important. I would rather see more of the country than the departures and arrival halls of airports. Whether or not I still feel like that half way through the journey remains to be seen!

I'm armed with lots of booze, books and a fully charged ipod, so everything should be ok. On the subject of books, I've just finished reading my first of the trip - Flat Earth News by Nick Davies. It is an excellent account of how the world of media and PR has become utterly unscrupulous and unreliable, although as it is an account of the industry I work in, I'm not sure if it was exactly the right choice of reading to kick off my holiday...

One final comment on Hoi An before I fuck off. There were far more older, European tourists here than you normally see in this part of the world. This is no bad thing, but it got me thinking. Where are the British and Irish backpackers? Surely they can't all be so classless that the prevelance of culture rather than clubs in Hoi An means it gets missed off their trip? Perhaps they are all in Australia, where it is still summer. Maybe they've been credit crunched. Maybe they're all in Nha Trang...

There was an amusing incident involving a group of older English tourists (late 50s) last night. They were in a splendidly decadent bar on the riverfront (as was I) where the paint is coming off the walls and you can drink red wine for 50p a glass. It quickly became evident this was their first trip to SE Asia when a woman in their group started screaching when she saw a cockroach running up the wall. Not an unusual sight in this part of the world, and judging by her reaction you would have thought it had run up her leg and into her pants. There did then follow something that I must admit I found a little squeamish. A gorgeous little kitten that hangs around in the bar and normally does nothing more than rub against the leg of customers, saw the cockroach, ran for it, got in his mouth and then proceeded to much it to bits all over the floor. Don't they sell Whiskers out here?