Sitting near Da Nang beach, in Vietnam, which was completely deserted, a familiar tune blasted across from the hotel, which also seemed completely empty except for the staff. Unchained Melody - sung originally by Jimmy Young and countless others later. What was bizarre was that it was raining, and the Sandy Bay Resort, where the taxi driver in Hoi An had decided to drop us off for a swim, had been built to cater for the well-off, who do not come. So we were sitting on their sun loungers - costing $2 each - and I was sheltering under my spotted Marks and Spencers umbrella while the rain fell and Unchained Melody delighted us all - actually the waiters at the beach bar wanted to talk about Beckham.

Another day watched an excellent performance at the Hoi An Handicarft Workshop of traditional music, including a lady opera?ballet ? dancer miming turning into a fox. Musicians were in national costume but the boy drummer thought he was in a rock band and got very carried away At the end everyone lined up and sand Auld Lang Syne in Vietnamese, a popular tune there and heard several times before.

Maybe the sentimental appeals to something in the Vietnamese character. When sitting under some trees in Hue at the edge of the Perfume River, in a little open air bar, I was struck by the sad, sentimental sounds of the local pop music from the ubiquitous loud speakers and observed the local youth who sat gazing quitely over the river,on his own, with his shoes kicked off for comfort, smoking.

In the cafe in Hoi An we discovered, overlooking the river there, where the mother of the family cooks such excellent food, the music was mostly very scratchy Cuban Son music. On our last visit there the friendly son of the house asked us to choose which music to play - he had a collection which was all pirate copies. I selected Beegees as it seemed appropriate, and he said it was his favourite party music,but unfortunately he had played it so often, it was worn out. So the second choice was Marvin Gaye.

From that same cafe, on the day the skys opened and the river turned to silver, the local loud speakers pleased us all with Silent Night - told you they are sentimental in Vietnam!

By contrast, in Siem Reap, when we went for a drink at the Grand Hotel, the elegant, sophisticated pianist, Brooklyn born, played with consumate skill all the requests thrown at him.

Ko Samui. at Chaweng Beach in Thailand, is very westernised, there is a blues bar called Co Co where western musicians play rock every night. One band in particular was worth the beer, five of them, and they opened with Salt Peanuts.
But in the hotel restaurant. the music was provided by a trio of Thai people. a girl singer with percussion, and two guitarists. Their take on western music was a little wierd - perhaps I expected too much - anyway Hallo Dolly, in the tropical night, went down very well with the guests.