Even though we've only been in Nam a week it already feels like we've been their ages, such perhaps is the feeling of tiredness that comes over you just by walking around Hanoi so it was not unwelcome that we be escaping southwards, where in addition we knew the sun to be shining. Vietnam's climate has a very definate North/South split.

After the joys of the overnight trains, this time we went for the overnight bus and booked ourselves on the sleeper bus, paying for a ticket that would get us all the way to Saigon. Basically it is an ordinary coach but instead of the standard sleeping there are bunk beds, all in all the bus probably sleeps 30-40. There was a bit of a hoo-ha in Hanoi as we got on and we couldn't get seats next to eachother, Rhiannon kicking up a fuss a mum would be proud of until some kindly (or fed up) chap moved so that we could sit near eachother. Bless.

The trip itself was uneventful except for out induction into the joys of the Vietnamese pop music scene which I have to say I want more of. The driver whacked on a dvd of local talent which was hosted by a guy, who on top of his undoubted hosting skills also treated us to his greatest hits very now and then. Having seemingly modeled himself on a younger Tom Jones he managed to come across more as a man with the singing prowess of Max Bygraves and the dancing ability of well....me. It was awesome, but was only the starter for the main cousre of the show in which a bunch of Bros wannabees competed to produce the most cringeworthy effort they could conceive of. It was edge of the seats stuff, we had no idea what anyone was saying. Imagine a Vietnamese Eurovision song contest, yes, it was that good.

Apart from that the journey was mostly forgettable, with the driver obviously making a few quid on the side by letting any local who wanted to, flag him down for a lift (they slept on the floor underneath us). Sleep was sporadic despite us cadging a sleeping tablet off someone, due to the constant beeping of the horn and at 6am it was wakeyt wakey and time for more (not unwelcome) tunes.

We hadn't planned on even going to Hue but after the bus delays meant we missed our connection we found ourseloves with five hours to kill and used to to see a bit of Hue which is Vietnam's third largest city for all you stat fans out there.

Actually all we saw was the citedal; a city within a city with temples, walls, a theatre and lots of open land. It was quite relaxing really because you were away from the hum of motos and the hassles to buy something or get to take a moto ride. It didn't stop us souvenir shopping for titbits that we haggled down to a third of the price originally quoted but now still think we over paid for! Oh well.

That was it for Hue as we got back on the bus to make the four hour trip to Hoi An.