Danang, China Beach - Saturday 31st

Today we drove back down south towards Da Nang to our beach resort for some R&R.There was less traffic on the return journey, but lots of kids on their bikes coming home from school.They go to school six days of the week and they all ride bikes that are too tall for them, with their friends or siblings riding pillion.So nieces and nephews, when you are getting your lift to school 5 days a week, spare a thought for the kiddies here!Checked in to the hotel and sat by the pool for the afternoon.Good hotel, but not very busy, so we sat in the empty bar with the band (Filipino - 'Philbeat'), giving us a private gig!

Sunday 1st

Our day consisted of beach, pool, scrabble, billiards, darts and gym and our usual private gig in the bar.It doesn't get much better than that!

Monday 2nd

We had been watching the news over the past few days to check the strength and direction of the typhoon that is heading slap bang into the area that we are staying.We were waking continually through the night to hear the howling winds and rain lashing on the window panes.By mid morning the rain was torrential and the wind very strong.It then seemed to brighten up so we took a stroll down to the beach front to watch the crashing waves and feel the gusts of wind in our hair.We were surprised to see the hotel staff stacking all the chairs and tables away as we thought the worst of it had gone.Then the sky went black, the rain came down like a blanket of water, the horizon disappeared behind a mass of frothing waves and the trees were swaying and bending in the strong winds. We realised that earlier was just the rehearsal and this was the typhoon.We couldn't do much more than sit in our room and watch DVD's, write the blog and make some contingency plans in case our flight to Hanoi was cancelled tomorrow, as we are due to catch the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa (northern Vietnam, near the Chinese border).

Tuesday 3rd

Although we woke to the wind still howling, the rain had stopped and our flight back to Hanoi took off as scheduled.As we had a few hours to kill in Hanoi we thought we should try and recapture some of the photos that we had previously lost.We went to the Temple of Literature and were then taken by cyclo around parts of the city while we snapped away at buildings and general scenes that depict this chaotic, but charismatic city. Although we are back breathing in the thick exhaust fumes, stepping on the mulch stuck on the pavements from yesterday's street food, constantly dodging the traffic and even more so trying to dodge the vendors, it's an enticing place that is just so full of character and energy. We feel as if we have a real love/hate relationship with the place. In the evening we boarded the train for the 9-hour overnighter to Sapa.On booking the trip we were advised our double en-suite cabin was deluxe (as of course, it should be), however, with just about every trip you book the word 'deluxe' crops up.However, the literal translation means a 1970's chipped Formica-panelled cabin bathed in stark fluorescent lighting..We were a little surprised when we realised the en-suite was no where to be seen and that there were four bunks in the room.The real surprise came when two other men came in and plonked their bags on their allocated beds opposite our bunks.Oh dear, we should have packed those jim-jams!. A little gob-smacked at how different this was from our promised tour, we watched Hanoi drift past the windows and were amused to see that the train overlooks people's bathrooms and toilets which were all on full display!As Mr Gomes (Spanish) and Mr Thang (Vietnamese) had settled down for the night we went along to the buffet car with our scrabble board and found it to be a stark, smoky carriage (despite all the no smoking signs).The majority of the smoke was from the huge hubbly-bubbly pipe that the train guards were getting high on.The pipe was made from bamboo and the state of the mouthpiece made you want to vomit.We naturally declined the offer of a lug. We went off to bed and didn't get much sleep due to the beep-bloody-beep and the stopping and starting at various stations to load and unload stock.When sleep came it was short lived, as at 4.30 am the loud speaker burst in to life with a woman wailing a Vietnamese love ballad at 9000 decibels and the guardrapping very loudly on the door.