Back to work today and my ambivalence about having to do so quickly turned to active dismay when I saw my email and landed instantly in the poisonous atmosphere of the office.

Do workplaces tend to be collection points of negativity? I was so tempted to hand in my resignation letter there and then. If going to work is such a dreadful thing, why do it?

The saving grace is that the politics tend to be contained in the rarefied atmosphere of upper management. The downside is that the rest of us get dragged into it too. It seems that the day before I came back to work was a particularly bad one.

I spent the day clearing my email (is there anything which is more time wasting??) and listening to the grouses of fellow workers. At about 7.30, a drink seemed like a great idea so the women on the desk headed to BJ's next door for a bottle of wine and some chicken wings.

Thank God it's the raspy end of a long drawn out week, for these guys. Me, I wish I was back on holiday.

I don't go back to work till tomorrow, which is a relief. Wanted to take the girls out today but as it turned out they had a mass of homework to do online so we spent the day home doing just that.

Went out in the afternoon to purchase a security deposit for Poni's work permit. Then stopped by Holland Village to do grocery shopping.

Had mum and dad over for dinner. Mum's arm which was operated on is better but her frozen shoulder has not improved at all...

There was a delayed telecast of Man Utd's game against Portsmouth, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Pathetic start to the season.

Despite having gone to bed at 2, we dragged ourselves up at 8 the next morning, appalled by the prospect of not having gifts for the kids. But first things first so we had ourselves some pho bo for breakfast at Pho Oso just down the street on Dong Khoi. It was pretty tasty but I think the best pho I've had is in Hanoi.

Not much by way of souvenirs for kids but we managed to buy a couple of lacquered miniature chests of drawers inlaid with shell at a shop which sold amazing replicas of sailing ships and other sorts of boats. Luckily we aren't collectors or we may have spent hours there.

As it was we had a plane to catch at 12.50pm. We arrived in Singapore at 4pm, to a couple of anxious phone messages from Alexis about where we were. Home by 4.45 to a couple of rapturous children, who greeted us with presents and home made cards! Isabel bought me a photo frame and J a mars bar, while Alexis had a rose for me. We were bowled over. Suddenly our gifts seemed paltry beside their efforts.

It feels nice to be home. The restaurants downstairs are open so we took the girls down to Rocky's for pizza. They have no school in the next two days, added bonus.

Set the alarm for 7 but couldn't quite get out of bed. Eventually crept down to brekkie where we got the very nice staff to pack boiled eggs and baguettes for us. Coffee was all we could manage. Some kerfuffle about the route and where to get helmets before we could finally set off at 8.20am. The Golden Sands group are cycling up to My Son except Udo and Zoe, who are also on a motorbike. Julian and Cecilia opted not to get up.

The ride to My Son took one and a half hours with one wavering decision over how to get to Highway 1. The morning traffic was predictably harrowing until we got out of the towns; then it was a pleasant ride to My Son.

More angst about where to park the bike and the helmets but eventually we got to the ruins at about 10.30, when it was scorchingly hot. We sat in the shade of a crumbled stupa and inhaled our bread and boiled eggs. The Cham ruins are atmospheric but they were pretty well pounded to pieces by the americans during the war. A real shame. The cyclists caught up with us at Group B/C/D, the most well-preserved area of My Son. J went click click click while I went in search of diet Coke.

Wrapped up by about 1pm. The little pit stop where you catch the jeep had the most wonderful cau lao. I'm glad we weren't too hot to eat. Then the others headed back to Hoi An while J and I carried on in search of more adventure. Alas, without a road map it was impossible to go very far but even so, we were treated to idyllic scenes of bright green rice paddies under a wedgwood blue sky; women in conical hats and ao dai (honestly, it's a cliche but they really DO wear the gear!) and smiling waving farm people. One woman unlocked the Ho family shrine for us to visit, and we made a worthwhile detour to the river bank to watch some men at work unloading stones from a boat.

Turned back to Hoi An at about 4.20. The ride back took an hour -- good thing too, as my tight jeans made for uncomfortable riding. We collapsed into the pool until the mozzies drove us back to the room. Made plans to meet for dinner at Mango Rooms with the whole crew. It was fun, then ended up with a drink at a bar (the loudest one yet) with Julian, Cecilia, Trish and Frederick.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and hot -- luckily this was not the weather yesterday... J and I got up to have breakfast, then effected a change of room from the noisy city view to the garden one (it cost us USD 6 more). The room with the garden view (actually, rice paddy view) is lovely; bright and with a generous breeze through the open doors and shuttered windows. We however put the a/c on and J went back to sleep. Eventually we got going again round about 2pm. Met the Weitzes and Julian and Cecilia at the Cargo Club for a bite. It is sappingly hot. I had a lovely stuffed squid which I scarfed with fluffy white rice. Then we wandered around town for a bit before going back for the nth shower of the day.

J rented a motorbike after the usual angst over price and how much petrol it should come with etc etc which spared us the angst of getting a taxi to Cua Dai beach. We rode to the fishing village that had been the route of the run stage of the triathlon. It was quite lovely, actually, with excited children (and adults) waving madly. There is a bridge through the village which overlooks the river and the fishing boats. It's quite picturesque.

Caught up with Udo and the Bond sisters in the village (also saw Evil Nasty French Race Lady having her run). Ended up at Golden Sands where we had a drink with Udo while waiting for Barbara and Zoe. J and I went ahead on the bike and found a place for us to have dinner. Watched some EPL games while stuffing faces on fried spring rolls, fried fish and grilled chicken. Ate the whole fish much to Zoe's chagrin.

The day of the first Hoi An International Triathlon. We rose at 6.15 and left before 6.30 but it took forever to find a taxi (we had to go to Central Market to get one). No one will take us for $2 but at least this one was on a meter. We arrived in plenty of time as the start of the race was delayed till 7.20 (s0me cockamamie explanation about how Viet time is ACTUALLY 20 mins behind the official time??). There were less than 100 competitors so it's a pretty relaxed tri. J was feeling good, unlike the last unhappy experience in Phuket. The race organisers also brought in a bunch of little kids to cheer. Even more bizarre than Singapore.

The swimmers were off at 7.20 and J and I went off for breakfast with Julian (who is running with Barbara in Team Ape). Then we waited for the cyclists at the transition area. Udo was almost last out of the water so Tab took a while to complete the bike leg but she managed to gain a few places. Barbara was the first back of the lot, as expected, than Trish, Becky and Frederick. Then Tab. J was off like a hare raring to go. He was fast too, faster than I expected given how he had ZERO training but he completed his race in 52 mins or thereabouts and would have been faster had he not made a wrong turn at one point...

The thing is everyone finished, which was a miracle considering the chaos that the bike leg was. They had not closed the roads as promised (how could they, since the locals don't give a hoot about traffic rules) and there were no road markings so the cyclists, who were already strung out thinly given the small numbers, were in danger of 1) losing their way 2) being mowed down by a truck, taxi or moped. Amazingly, no one died. However, there was a jarring incident in the spat Barbara had with the Nazi Race Lady (actually she was French and her name was Nathalie) who DID NOT LIKE us being in the finish area taking pictures, despite the fact we were not in anyone's way and there was hardly anyone ar0und anyway. BW exchanged some heated words with her and at one point had to brush NRL's falsely consoling hand off her shoulder. Eeks. The pointed beaky nose and skinny shoulders of that one were rather apt.

But her aside, it was a good showing by the crew and I was most proud of J. We hobbled over to the Victoria to reproach the 2Ms for not showing up (they were still in bed!!!) then cabbed it back to the TX where he tried but failed to nap. Then we hobbled to the Mango Rooms to have lunch with Julian and Cecilia (I had the most fabulous and delicate red snapper fillet, grilled to perfection, and he had some shrimp in a delish ginger and onion sauce). At a loss what to do afterwards, but we finally settled on sitting on the beach with Barbara and Udo (how difficult was that).

Awards dinner followed at the Golden Sands, with the Weitzes kindly loaning me the use of their bathroom to get ready. Now, we have had better Awards dinners than this one, to be sure. First of all, the wait staff would not stop hounding us for our dinner vouchers. They smelt a rat and ok so we were scamming them (Zoe and I did not have tickets) but c'mon guys, the race participants were already paying USD24 a head in a country where that could buy 20 meals, so who's scamming who? But one waitress in particular would not leave us alone and came back every now and then to pester us for vouchers. I had fully intended to buy a ticket but got so harried that I decided not to anymore. In the end she left us alone when J raised his voice at her.

The awards themselves were fantastic, cos Teams Ape and Insane placed second and third (all right, there were four teams in total) and Trish placed third in her category, so most of our crew got red silk lanterns for prizes. But then we all had to sit through the most dismal cultural performance by the Vietnamese hosts (it'll take em a while to reach this century). Afterwards there was dancing but both the music and the sound system were dodgy, to say the least, and though Barb gave the deejay her own CD of dance music selected by Zoe to play (she would), Miss Don't-Tell-Me-What-To-Do spinmeister refused to play it (maybe her communist sensibilities warned her it would be dangerous and to stick to Modern Talking and Boney M -- I danced to Boney M!!! Talk about coming down in life...)

At 11.15 the party had to be broken up and while the younger set shuffled off to another Beach Bar, J and I found a cab to take us home. My husband is going to feel less than perfect in the morning...

I thought J should take it easy today, the day before the race. We had breakfast in the hotel when we eventually got out of bed. Then we rented a couple of bikes to ride down to the beach. Now that was not so relaxing, what with less-than-ideal bikes and the usual mad streets (though a tenth of what it was like in HCMC). We stopped by the Victoria and found the 2Ms on the beach. Walked over to Golden Sands to drop off the EPA camera but discovered the Weitzes were in town, so we went back to the beach and lazed there for a few hours.

Cua Dai beach is lovely -- clean (at least, in front of the resorts), calm, quiet and picturesque. The kids would like to stay here, I thought. We sat under umbrellas and had pasta, white roses and a capi vodka (or I did). At 3.30, we made a move to cycle back to our hotel. That gave us enough time to shower and change to meet everyone at Good Morning Vietnam for the carbo loading dinner. It had great swordfish carpaccio and I had a most tasty tagliatelle with gambieri and caviar. Got in a quick tea with the 2Ms (Mo looking resplendent in a grey ruched top and beads) at Hai Cafe before going home to sleep early. But it was still 11.15 before we turned out the lights.

National Day -- thank you, Rishad, for texting a reminder. Blame it on the rough night we had at the Saigon Comfort Hotel. If it were not bad enough that the walls were made of paper, someone decided to carry out house repairs at 3.30 in the morning. I kid you not -- there was HAMMERING, which went on for the better part of an hour. I think it came from next door. Eventually I fell back asleep and dreamt that a post in tripadvisor.com warned of this very thing happening. "Someone was hammering next door in the middle of the night,"warned a hotel guest in October last year. "Don't stay here." In my dream I concluded the hotel must be haunted but I do resolve never to stay here again. J and I grabbed a quick toastie and coffee at the cafe next door (in the middle of our sandwich we realised that this place must have been the source of the banging but it was too late to unorder...), threw our things together and flagged down a taxi to the airport. It wasn't early but the late night shenanigans put paid to our plans of visiting Ben Thanh market. Next time, IF I ever come back to HCMC. The roads seem even more insane this morning than yesterday. At least it's drizzling....

Our flight to Danang left at 12.30. A car from Thanh Xuan Hotel was waiting for us. We drove past lovely beaches (China and Non Nuoc) and the very unimpressive Marble Mountains; it was blazing hot and we were starving. Arriving at our hotel in Hoi An, we checked in, had a minor spat with them about the price (they had quoted me USD22 and were trying to charge us $25 instead -- two out of two!!!) by which time we were bad tempered with each other. It didn't help that we got lost finding our way to the Old Town, and walked 15 mins longer than necessary on unhappy stomachs but we managed to find Restaurant 96 at last on the riverside. It was atmospheric enough and the cao lau and fried wantons were tasty enough to make us feel better. Texted Mo and Mariko, who found us eventually. Mo refused to eat or drink anything made in the place out of fear of getting sick but she did pick at Mariko's wantons. The black and white house cat was very friendly, and made itself very free with my lap. She was a doll.

At 5 it got less hot and we decided to wander around the Old Town briefly before dinner. The centuries-old shophouses are beautiful, and I love how everything is grey stone or painted in ochre but it felt that 90 per cent of the shops were tourist shops. We are ruining everything, though J pointed out that Hoi An's old town may not exist if it were not for the tourists. Posed for pictures like good ones, then it got dark and we waited for the Weitz-Waltons to arrive from their beach hotel. They did, looking lovely and familiar, with the Bond sisters and we had dinner on the roof of the Cargo Club. Fried camembert, mango salad, and grilled chicken on lime leaf, with two bottles of wine. All good and it cost the princely sum of USD10 per head. Udo paid.

They headedback to their hotel (the shuttle bus left early) while J and I had crepes for dessert with the 2Ms in the garden of Tam Tam Cafe. It's all charming -- I wonder what this town was like in the old days. J and I walked back to our hotel and drank in the quiet dark streets, lit only with lanterns and lights from the houses, with all the honking stopped.

On leave; drove the girls to school dressed in red and white; finished packing and booked a hotel room while JD went to collect his visa; flight at 11.20 from BT. Arrived Ho Chi Minh at 1.40; the airport is even more efficient than Changi! By the time we cleared immigration -- and there was barely a queue -- our bags were already waiting for us at the carousel. Tried to change tomorrow's flight at the Pacific Airlines counter but a mixture of having no language and suspicion we were being taken for a ride put an end to that attempt. It turned out they were NOT having us on, but alas, too late. What an inauspicious start to our holiday. Got metered taxi into the backpacker district of Pham Ngu Lao, where our hotel is. Crazy streets full of motorbikes, everyone swerving to avoid each other and beeping the hell out of the world. Buildings higgledy-piggledy; power lines like black ropes in the sky. Drove past the Reunification Palace -- so this is where the south fell. Arrived at Saigon Comfort at 2.30, hungry as anything, but at least it's not overly hot with the slight drizzle. Checked into our room for USD22; decent enough if it does smell of kitty litter.... Along our street is Pho 24; went in search of sustenance and had our first meal in Vietnam: hearty, sustaining pho bo tai with fat brisket (for me) and flank steak (for JD). Walked from there to Pacific Airlines office in Dong Khoi to change our flight tomorrow (price has now gone up from US$26 at the airport to $32.30 but what the hell). Across the road is the Majestic, with a charming rooftop bar where we had a drink (diet coke for me) and a view of the very busy, teeming Saigon River. Excellent. From there we ventured northwards on posh Dong Khoi (stopping for a small spot of shopping) to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Spent a few minutes at the wonderful Main Post Office, like going back in time to the Victorian era. The cathedral was closed so we wandered to Quan An Ngon on ?? where we had a sumptuous dinner for US$10, and finished with a drink on the 23rd story of the Saigon Sheraton. Isabel called to say she loved us.