Our next stop following Hanoi was Hue, the 'intellectual, cultural and spiritual' capital of Vietnam (according to Lonely Planet!). The sleeper train was around 14 hours and strong earplugs and sleeping tablets ensured we got a good night's sleep. All in all, the train experience was a lot better than the one we went on last year J

We arrived in Hue with Regan and Abbie (who had randomly booked the same train as us!) and got to our hotel. We had only one day and night in Hue so had a quick freshen up and headed out to the main attraction, the Citadel. The Citadel was once the home and palace of the Emperor. Although impressive and good to see, much of it had been heavily bombed by the Americans in the war and was in ruins. We also saw some original American and Vietnamese war planes and tanks at a nearby exhibition, which was cool. In the evening, we had been recommended to go to a market, which turned out to be mostly for locals…with local prices!

The following day we headed to Hoi An - our favourite place from our time in Vietnam last year. We decided to splash out and share a taxi there with Regan and Abbie (as opposed to a crammed local bus!) - the taxi was actually a tour which stopped off at various local attractions on route, including:

- - A local fishing village, just in time to spot the boats coming in with their catch of the day!

- - An absolutely stunning beach, virtually secluded and set within a beautiful landscape of hills

- - A scenic hill drive, which showed amazing views of Danang and the South China Sea. There were also some American bunkers at the top of the hill, which the boys enjoyed exploring!

- - A local lunch with our taxi driver of fish cake pho - surprisingly good!

- - China Beach which was vast but much more developed than … The sea was pretty murky so we decided to stay on the sand!

- - Marble mountain - a hill with an array of temples and caves to explore on top! It was a very spiritual place, with an eerie feel to the caves. Dave, Regan and Abbie had fun climbing through the caves! We wished we had more time to explore it fully…

And then we arrived in dreamy Hoi An…. It was just as we remembered - beautiful beaches, lovely people and tranquil lanterns on the river! It was super hot - at least 35 degrees. But that didn't stop the Vietnamese women covering themselves head to toe to stop themselves getting tanned - apparently the men like their women pale!

We spent a lot of time with Abbie and Regan who have become really good friends of ours and we hope to see them again soon! Our first night we were having dinner by the river and saw the owner making some super-strong cocktails for the equivalent of 2 quid! Loving a bargain, we each opted for one and then decided to head for some karaoke - well, me and Abbie were more excited about this than Regan and Dave J We ended up finding a karaoke bar that was open and found ourselves gate crashing a Vietnamese hotel's opening party! The managers were very welcoming and gave us some free beers as we sang 'sha la la la la la'. The night ended hilariously with us then being chucked out of the bar wth the managers saying 'we locals go to bed early' but the party was clearly still going to go on without us! Fun times J

The next day we were suffering… But managed to get our fittings done for some custom-made work suits. We were really happy with the end results - after 3 fittings! They struggled with my curves but we got there in the end… We also enjoyed wondering around the streets of Old Town. The next couple of days we rented bikes and headed to various beaches near to Hoi An - An Bang beach and Cua Dai Beach. But the highlight was a random, secluded beach which Regan and Abbie found - it was basically a woman's house, and she had put sun loungers up on the beach hoping tourists would come! She had an ulterior motive and of course, wanted to take you to her tailors…

We spent the evenings with Abbie and Regan drinking fresh beer - we discovered 15p beers were expensive in Hanoi - Hoi An beers were 9p! We did quite a lot of market research and had our favourite bars to go to and enjoy the beer. We also enjoyed the local Hoi An delicacies - crispy wontons, white rose and cau lau - delicious!

And then it was time to leave Hoi An and say goodbye to Abbie and Regan, who were staying in Vietnam L We have spent the last 4 weeks with them and have had some of the best times of our whole trip! We will really miss them…

Next stop…Cambodia!!