Happy Birthday dear Martin!

So what did Martin want to do for his birthday? Go shopping! So off we trundled in the direction of the shopping centre. En route we came across what looked like a missile-targeting system with what was presumably all of Vietnam's silos highlighted in red and yellow.

We hit two very modern shopping centres, though the electronics prices weren't far off what we'd pay in the UK and we couldn't find contender number three for Martin's ultra-safe, never-to-be-lost camera! However, we did find a really smart cinema playing films in English and another bottle of GBP1 rice-vodka and some mixers! Immediately outside the civilisation of the cinema there was a huge motorbike park to remind you where you actually were!

In an attempt to do things differently we began a game of blow the cards off the selotape reel, further extending the game with a pair of special cards - the cheesy Ian cards! We progressed naturally to the Bia Hoi where some local guys and American girls aided me in my rather easy quest to get Martin smashed. My mission was complete not much later at a cost of about half a bottle of vodka (50p) plus seven Bia Hoi's (48p). Not many places you can take a quid, get hammered and still have change in your pocket! Oh and the kebabs next door cost 33p a go!



After a wee rendition of Happy Birthday the party moved to New Century - a huge club with great music, great decor and unbelievably free entry too!

We boogied the night away, well at least until one of the new-rich locals decided he didn't like Martin and tried to barge him to the side. The favour was promptly returned and as the kid went for a swing, what must have been the fastest bouncers in the world were already between us! After the same thing happened for the second time we were escourted from the club. Even in a foreign country we get kicked-out when its not our fault - legendary!