The less glamorous side of travelling. The distance between Hue and Ho Chi Minh City is a little under 400kms, which after travelling around India and China is a relatively short journey. There were still no train tickets available in Vietnam due to ongoing festival activities and we were lucky to get on board a sleeper bus for the journey. This was a mixed blessing as we'd wanted to avoid this bus journey as it takes 26 hours. Yes, that is 26 hours to travel 400kms, or 15kph for 26 hours. Of course the bus didn't travel at that speed, we boarded a first bus and then had to change twice more. The changes of bus where stories in themselves as we were first left at the side of the road in Hoi An for an hour and then at the bus station in Nah Trang at 5am. For some unfathomable reason we were the only travellers on the bus so it was difficult to find out what on Earth was going on. Add into the mix the need to show your bus ticket at each stage when Gemma had lost hers on the first leg and you might be building up a picture in your mind's eye of a nightmare journey!

Still, we made it to HCMC intact. We were really only here to catch a flight so didn't get much of an opportunity to look around, other than to check into our hostel and walk around the De Tham area checking out its seedy nightlife (from a safe distance).HCMC was certainly the liveliest place we'd been to, geared up for western backpackers and tourists looking for a "good time".