I spent 2 weeks living Vietnamese life in Hoan Lao, staying at James' lovely house. It was so refreshing to stay in one place and relax for a while. We watched films, swam in the sea and cycled around Hoan Lao. It is a very quaint, quiet little town where there are no tourists. This meant that all the residents are so excited to see us that we heard shouts of "Hello!" every few minutes as we peddled through the almost-empty streets; everyone was pleased to see us. As there are no tourists, very few people in the town speak English which turned out to be hilarious when trying to buy food at the market. Our attempts at Vietnamese often resulted in eruptions of laughter from the women on the stalls. We were constantly presented with bags of squid or chunks of meat or half-plucked, half-alive birds. The meat and vegetables we bought were always a mystery, as was how to cook them but we got by and even managed to cook steak and chips one night. Delish!