Thursday August 4th (Ha Noi, Vietnam) Another early start, but off to see the Big Guy, the Main Main, Uncle Ho, Mr. Ho Chi Minh. He joins the ranks of Lenin in Russia and Chairman Mao in China to have their own mausoleum and special embalming. It was impressive, although it looks like it could be a wax replica. There was an accompanying museum that housed some really strange artifacts. We then went back to pepperonis for lunch and to get there took my first motorbike ride! Can I just say that like a rollor coaster and the drivers have nerves of steel!! So many near misses!! Had a last walk around town, did some internet and went back to grab some quick dinner before heading on the bus to then board the 16 hour train to Hue. We all had our own cabins. After an hour or so, we hear a loud thud. It turns out that our train had hit a truck that was on the rails and when we saw the truck, the driver side looked ok, but if someone was on the passenger side, they would not be able to survive. We were only stopped for 10-20 minutes. Apparently this is not an uncommon event. During the night, we met some interesting Dutch and Canadians that we would bump into every now and then in the next two cities. At 12:00, everyone wished Jason Happy 28th Birthday and by 12:02, everyone was asleep. Friday 5th August (Jason's birthday proper!) Overnight train arrived in Hue a bit later than scheduled, just before 9. Tried to get an hour sleep before going out exploring and then headed out about midday. Went to DMZ bar for lunch and played pool for a while. Back to hotel to get cyclo's to the old citadel across the river. Nice ride in cyclo and citadel pretty good too. Cyclos back again and then went out for Jason's birthday meal at a nice French restaurant. We gave him a "Good Morning Vietnam" t-shirt which was kinda cool. Headed to the DMZ again afterwards and got through lots of drinks by 2am! Was a good night! Saturday 6th August 7am was far too early a start after what had been drunk! Went out for the day at 8am on a motorbike tour of the city. Was amazing! Loved being on a motorbike. Doubt we exceeded 50mph at anytime though - just felt fast. Started off at a village just outside of town - saw a market and had my fortune read.. very interesting!! Next stop was back into town where we met a one-armed lady who made conical hats. I bought a small one as a wall decoration , just not sure if will make the journey home in one piece! Went to see some monks eat lunch in a nice temple surrounded by water-lilies before we ourselves slipped off for lunch just up the road at a kind of convent type place for women Buddhists The lunch was really good and everything was vegetarian as they don't eat meat, so nick was in heaven! Next stop was the grave of the 4th King. He apparently failed to have any children with his wife or 113 concubines so eventually adopted his nephew to continue the dynasty. Pity the 113 concubines as when he died they all "committed suicide" to avoid becoming slaves. Also pity the hundreds of men who dug the tunnels to the secret grave site. They were all executed to prevent the location being revealed to stop looting. To this day no-one knows where he is buried apparently. Bunker Hill next stop, so named because the highest hill around the city and all of Vietnam's occupying forces have built their own bunkers on top to use as a lookout post. Why they didn't just use the ones already there I don't know, but there are at least 3! Penultimate stop was a coliseum where elephants used to be made to fight tigers. Weird idea, but apparently win ratio was at 50:50 - tigers were killed anyway though, as a tiger winning was considered unlucky! Final stop was the Lady Pagoda - Took a little boat trip to get to it - which was nice. Boat back across the river to get bikes back to hotel. Chilled out in the hotel and then Cleane and I went out for a bite to eat at the French restaurant again ... fodd had been so good the night before!