a.k.a. Sihanoukville, Cambodia and Mui Ne, Vietnam. On our gift list, we billed Sihanoukville as all sun and sand, the Miami of the East. It might have been, if there had been any sun.

Every morning we woke up to the sound of rain falling on the tin roof, which isn't nearly as romantic as Norah Jones makes out. Quite noisy in fact, and indicative of another day with nothing to do. So we would shelter in our hut, and there we discovered someone else sheltering from the storm: a foot-long green and red spotted gecko. Aren't geckos only meant to be 2 inches long?

We asked our hotel guy what there was to do in town when it was rainy, and he laughed hysterically before proclaiming, "nothing!". Despite his pessimism, we set off into town and actually made a great dicovery - Seeing Hands massages. Most massage parlours in Cambodia offer a great deal more than your standard rub-down, but Seeing Hands is above board. the masseurs are all blind and proceeds go to the Disabled society of Cambodia, so your conscience gets a boost as well as your back.

On the morning we were booked to go on a boat trip in the nearby Ream nature park, it rained so hard that water came in under our door. We took that as our cue to leave.

Determined and hardened travellers that we are, we persisted in our search for another beach to laze around on instead. So after Saigon we headed for the supposedly idyllic Mui Ne, whch we found to be quite like Sihanoukville weather-wise, though it offered less to do and also smelled strongly of fish.