Noone called Charlie here...

Lea dives in for Day 3 on the Nha Trang reefs.
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Highlights of Southern Vietnam...

Stayed a few days in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and headed north to Nha Trang.

There's a water buffalo jackknifed up there. It's not a very pretty picture. There's horns everywhere...

If you want a boring day out in HCMC, check out the Re-Unification Palace. Recently constructed in a stately 1960's "Deptartment of Housing" design, the Palace boasts such draw cards as "the President's Office" (complete with desk, phone and chair) and the "Communications Bunker" (complete with radio and phone). The staff will enthusiastically conduct 2 hour tours in any language...

Lea waves to the camera, 12m under the sea
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We hired a motorbike and learned to ride in peak hour traffic, purely because it seemed dangerous. During our first attempt, we learned to ride (a) tandem (b) unlicensed (c) helmet-free (d) on the right-hand side of the road (e) in heavy traffic (f) without knowing where we were going (g) without understanding any traffic rules or signs, and (h) in the dark.

Spent a day boating around on the Mekong River (photos attached). Also went to an awesome waterslide and theme park in monsoonal rain.

Steve signals "Everything's OK" in scuba diving language
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Nha Trang was the kind of tropical paradise you see on postcards. Mountains meet the sea, palm trees galore, bay of islands, etc etc. We did our open water scuba diving course over three days. Learing to breathe under water was very scary. Brilliant to stand on the floor of a coral reef 18m below sea level and have fish nibble the zippers on your wetsuit.

Stayed in a guest house run by an old lady who tried to mother us too much (she made us Mango juice when we left and the whole family came outside and waved us goodbye!). Had a quick mudbath and mineral spring shower before we jumped on the overnight bus to Hoi An.