We only have one day in HCMC, which is a pity because it looks quite an interesting place. More modern and cosmopolitan than Hanoi with smart shopping malls (unfortunately full of Western chains including Debenhams, Gap and Accessorize so that once inside you could be anywhere in the world); skyscrapers, plenty of Western-style coffee houses and the people dressed noticeably more fashionably and, a few, at least, driving bigger cars than in the capital. However...

Several trains a day run between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (most people still call it Saigon) - all under the generic title of 'The Reunification Express'. We are on the fastest which leaves Hanoi at 11 o'clock at night and takes 30 hours to travel the 1,800 km to HCMC, unceremoniously dumping us there at the unearthly hour of 5.00 in the morning. So 'express' is something of a misnomer. But there remains no better way to see a country than by train. And unlike ...