While in Vietnam, I am intrigued to see so many men with beautifully manicured finger nails, in an elegant oval shape, some of the nails quite long and impractical! Presumably this is partly to show they do not have to work with their hands - I don't know. There is such a lot to find out about this huge country.

Hang Bac street has an overload of motorbikes on the pavement and the traffic generally if the worst I have ever encountered because there are no crossing places. Bikes and motorbikes often are without lights at night - the cars and taxis honk horns constantly to emphasize their passing other road users. Last night there we passed the scene of an accident, when an animated crowd collected round signs of blood on the pavement, which was being washed away by brush and bucket. No ambulance, of course. Later, passing back that way, the victim was gesticulating violently to an interested crown, his trouser rolled up and bloody rags wound round his injured foot.
The little hotel, Queen Travel, I can recommend with reservations, but the hotel staff who double up as a tour and reservation service, are excellent, particularly Dzung and Luc, who bought sleeper train tickets, flight tickets, necessitating me making several trips to the local ATM for millions of Dong. I had to get out two lots of 2,000,000. The currency takes some adjusting to, at a rate of about 15,550 Dong to the dollar. At first everything seems very expensive!
There is, near to Hang Bac, a small Vietnamese house open to the public, which has been renovated to its original condition. This is fascinating, three rooms deep with two courtyards open to the sky in between each room, and at the back a kitchen behind which is a covered stone water tank, where the rain drains down from a bamboo gutter. The gutter is fixed to the privy, a small outbuilding, with a high step up arrangement and the hole for your deposit, which is collected down below where there is a little door, so the collected ordure can be saved to use on the fields.