After leaving Hoi An we set off on a 3 hour bus journey to Hue in the north of Vietnam, on lots of bendy roads, high up with big drops and a really fast driver!! On route we stopped at what was once the boarder to take photos of the amazing scenery and the bunkers which still remain.

Arrived at the hotel and the electricity was out, as there was no air con we headed out for lunch with Dara our group leader to a local place and had chicken, rice and vegetables, for £3 with a drink - bargin!

In the afternoon all of our group did a motorbike tour. My driver was really sweet and kept helping me put on and take off my helmet, although he spoke no English and I know little Vietnamese so conversations were non existent. Our tour headed out into the surrounding countryside and we were able to see all the paddy fields and people working on them, people's homes and lots of villages. All the Pagoda's that we saw were decorated with lots of lanterns and flags as they were celebrating Buddha's birthday today. We went to an old tomb, up a mountain to see amazing views of Perfume River, the Thien My Pagoda and ended up outside the Citadel. Along the way we stopped at different places to look at different farming methods and learnt how they make the traditional hats, with a bit of fortune telling thrown in for Jake, Kate and Linn by an old lady on a bridge, who predicted a lot of divorce's and children!! Was a really good day, although were a few near misses on the bikes - especially when mince decided to overtake another bike on a bend and a lorry was coming the other way, I decided it was just best not to look what was coming for you.

In the evening we all headed out for dinner before walking to the river to see a parade for Buddha's birthday - there were lots of people but not a lot happening so we headed for a quick drink before heading back to the hotel.

In the morning we woke up early so that we could head to the Citadel. The grounds were so extensive and even though it was early it was so hot, so we only explored the left hand side as we decided that everything was designed symmetrically so we figured the other side would be the same. The architecture was amazing and it was also lovely to see elephants in the grounds!!

After a lunch which consisted of pizza (which I had such a craving for) we headed to the train station for our last overnight train in Vietnam. The train left at 3.30pm with an expected arrival time of 4am in Hanoi. We sat in one of our train compartments drinking and playing cards, before having a few hours of disturbed sleep because of the movement of the train and the freezing cold air con!!