Train journey from Hue to Hoi An. Enjoyed some food from the trolley on the train. We bought it because we didn't know what it was, still don't. It was like chocolate rice crispies without the chocolate but with chilli and dried fish. We had a car meet us and take us to the latest hotel. Getting too used to the private car pick ups. New hotel is a bit rough; it has its own private beach, pool, jacuzzi and 4 poster beds. The most impressive bit is the truly massi...

Food adventures continue. We normally go for the eastern breakfast but this hotel has a huge buffet so we tried the western delicacies on offer. David thought that spaghetti carbonara was an interesting choice for breakfast but Yvonne went for the potatoes dauphinoise with hot dog sausages. Spent most of the day lazing by the pool, but we are now sitting in Little Owl bar enjoying beer, ice coffee with milk, coconut cakes and crispy pancake with prawns and pork ...

Started the day in DMZ bar booking the train tickets to De nang then to the Hue Citadel and purple forbidden city. The place has largely been ruined by first the French then the Americans and finally was hit by a typhoon. What remains is fantastic and the whole area is a world heritage centre. The area is in the process of being rebuilt but large areas are overgrown. We were in there for about 4 and a half hours walking around the remaining buildings and around ...

Flew from Hanoi to denang then taxi to Hue. Had not realised how far Hue was from Denang so had to book a special transfer, live and learn. While on the flight we read an article on lighthouses, and St Mary's was top of the list, who knew it is built on Bait Island. Only problem however was the photos were all of Tynemouth pier and lighthouse. Some Vietnamese writer was lazy, I bet they thought nobody would notice. See cover photo for article. Hue looks good a...

Hotel in Cat Ba has a fantastic panoramic view of the harbour and just round the corner from a fab little beach. However it also had the worst breakfast so far. As normal there was a buffet with the choice of Western or Eastern. We always go East - noodles or soup are admittedly a strange breakfast but miles better than a Vietnamese attempt at a fry up. This time even the vietnamese was dire as the buffet was all cold noodles which are gross. We ate some and af...