I'm finding it very hard to log on to this site (ozsleepy.blogspot.com) from Vietnam, and I'm wondering whether it's because there's something wrong with the site (which is unlikely, it's run by google), or whether... the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam doesn't like its citizens reading blogs. Sure, I were running a Leninist political system (which, luckily for you, I'm not) I wouldn't let people read stuff that might destabilise the regime, but this blog? Funny signs, food, oblique references to my complex private life?

We're in Hue, which is nice and quiet after Hanoi but - because we've come from Hanoi - seems a bit underdone. Yesterday we all got on motobikes (as passengers) and went off to see a whole bunch of tombs and whatnot. Aparently when you do this the manly way is to hang on to the back of the motorbike, hands behind you. The alternative is to wrap your arms around the rider, but I get the impression that that's a bit girly. The other Dads (we are three families traveling together) did it the manly way. But because I'd already showed my colors as a complete coward by being unable to jump off the roof of the boat a couple of days earlier I figured I had nothing to lose, so I did the wrap-around one. They're not sure what to make of me. I eat a lot, I'm not physically brave, I'm good with numbers and I can give the stock market run-down every morning.

The hotel in Hue has this interesting feature where the two machines that have internet access are in a little corridor off the lobby (a stout frenchman shouted at me here yesterday because my sons were using both machines). The corridor must be above a stagnant pond because sitting here means being attacked by mosquitoes. Perhaps this is a way of rationing the time? I remind myself that Malaria's rare this close to the coast.

In the Army Museum in Hanoi there's quite a bit of stuff about Dien Ben Phu, including a picture, which is, according to the caption, 10,000 french soldiers surrendering. Which gave me a bit of a giggle in a how-many-men-does-it-take-to-defend-Paris sort of way.

(Answer: Noone knows, they've never tried.)