Vespas

Tonight we had what was, by unanimous agreement, the best four hours we've experienced in Vietnam.

Our long-awaited (or dreaded, in the case of the girl child) nighttime tour of the city by Vespa finally arrived. We were picked up from our hotel by four guys with vintage scooters and taken off to a cafe for a getting-to-know-you drink. By the time we got there, the girl child's nervousness had disappeared and she was literally cackling with laughter.

While we enjoyed our drink, the heavens opened and torrential rain ensued. Just as we were thinking the rest of the tour might be cancelled, our drivers arrived back with ponchos for us, and off we set into the deluge.

For the remainder of the night, we were ferried from restaurant to restaurant, to chilled-out French-style jazz club to full-on American rock-n-roll joint. The food was fantastic - tiny restaurants dishing up a variety of local options. We even had frog. Not frogs' legs - the entire frog.

A brilliant experience all-round. Thoroughly recommended, if you happen to be down this way...

The pic shows the scene from our first cafe just after the rain started falling. It was still raining like this when we moved on to the next place. Slightly terrifying, but great fun.