One of the great things about travelling is the people you meet and the conversations you have. We have met a broad range of people from creepy runaway lunatics to people who have killed other people….Today we had a conversation that topped them all.

Having just checked out we were reading in the hotel courtyard. Two Vietnamese girls whom Kahlia had previously befriended sat down. They had previously tried to ask Kahlia some questions in private that she couldn’t understand. They tried again…

“When a girl & a boy want to have ‘relations’” they began! “But don’t want babies, what is the word” they continued. They wanted to know the word “Contraceptive” and specifically “Condom”. Now when you want to talk about a topic like this which is rampant with innuendo having a solid grasp of the language in use is helpful to avoid the potential pitfalls. They did not. They then went to asking questions like “How much are they?”, “Do you like them?” and “Which ones do you like?”.

By now I’m quite embarrassed and stunned that such sexually shy people are asking me these details. It turns out the girl has a store, Condoms are not easy to find in Hoi An and she is doing market research in order to start selling them. She asks us to list some advantages and disadvantages of selling them, which we do and tell her that is sounds like a good idea. We ask where her store is and what type of store it is. Here it starts getting stranger. She has a shoe store! I try to tell her that I would probably not look in a shoe store if I was looking to buy Condoms. She had thought of this, and had planned to make up flyers letting everyone know about her Shoe & Condom store. By now I’m laughing hysterically and trying not to as she is looking a little hurt.

In the end we suggested a simple sign stating that contraceptives were for sale, rather than a pyramid display of condom boxes, a sign and flyers.