Hello! First of all Happy Newyear to you, or as they say here in Vietnam: Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Hello! First of all Happy Newyear to you, or as they say here in Vietnam: Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

We are in beautiful but very touristy Hoi An now, a small city with old houses and famous for all it's lanterns. It is an Unesco site and especially at night it is beautiful. But because there are so many tourists (you hardly see any local people) it also feels like an open-air museum.

Last night we had a nice newyears eve celebration, although the local people don't really celebrate. They celebrate their own New Year: Tet (don't remember the date but around the end of January). Had dinner in a nice restaurant owned by a Dutch man and his Vietnamese wife. Unfortunately no oliebollen. Then we went to town and on our way in search for a good bar we saw Marijn, a Dutch girl we met in the train and her just new friend Filip. So we celebrares together with champagne and mojitos. Not much happening at midnight, so we made our own countdown. The only fireworks were little stars. And people let their little paper flowers with candles in the river. Spent the night drinking and dancing with other travelers and even found some kind of "oliebollen", we named them "kokos bollen" because they were filled with kokos. When we asked the guy to put sugar on it, he looked at us like we were crazy, but we had our oliebollen on new years eve. Everything closed at 3 and we walked back in the rain (not cold fortunately) in search for my hotel (Yuko and Linda were already back), a bit hard to find in the dark when you don't remember the streetname and after a few drinks. But we found it :-)
Yesterday morning it rained like cats and dogs but now it is sunny and around 22 degrees: me happy!!! We took a tour to My Son yesterday morning. An archaeological site with temples and probably also tombs of the Cham people, originally from Java. They call it the Vietnamese little Angkor Wat. It is small but impressive and beautiful set in the jungle. You can only go there by tour or by private car and since the first one is cheaper, most people choose that option. All tours have the same time (between 8-13) so everybody arrives at the same time. Horrible! So many People on such a small face and all guides (including ours whosevEnglish was difficult to understand) shouting their stories in English/German/ Japanese etc to their groups. But on the way back there was hardly anyone and itvwas beautiful and peace full. The site was heavily bombed during the war and you can see the craters everywhere. They also say you should not walked to far away in the jungle since there still might be unexploded objects and mines. Many temples are still unearthed and covered by grass/plants and sone they were restaurating. A beautiful setting with the green mountains mysteriously covered in the clouds. We were lucky because the rain was just a little, but tropically humid and hot.
I will tell you later about the days before when we visited the impressive Vinh Moc Tunnels and Marble Mountain. Still a bit tired and hungover, so some more rest and then a shower and strolling to beautiful Hoi An and have a "nieuwjaars borrel" with our new Dutch friends.
Enjoy your first day in 2012!

Love from Hoi An,

Tam Biet!