Today we woke early to the theme tune of 'Game of thrones' blaring... Still gave us a fright but better than the last choice. We were heading back to DaNang today but wanted to get breakfast in first, the girl in the cafe yesterday said that the buses came by at seven am, ten am and two pm. We thought we would get the ten am bus as it would allow us some time for breakfast plus we could get there early incase it decided to turn up at another random time ....or not at all, which I was still convinced was the probable answer given our experience.

We were up dressed and out the room by just after seven so headed down to pay our bill, for some reason despite our bill being eight hundred and something thousand and us giving only a million dong... The hotel had no change! We stood for ages waiting and faffing about before a deal was made, they were ten thousand short so we grabbed a large water... No doubt a scam but who cares, always need water. We said our goodbyes and headed off down the road towards the hotel where we decided to fill up on breakfast ready for the no doubt traumatic day a head. The food as usual was a good mix of Western and Asian dishes but I only had the three C's on my mind... Cheese, crispy bacon and cracked black pepper! In seven months I hadn't had any bacon and only had cheese twice and that was on pizza. They only had laughing cow cheese or cheese slices but hey I wasn't being fussy, especially when there's cracked pepper around. In the end I ate four rounds of cheese spread on toast sprinkled with pepper then covered in crispy bacon and omelette. Oh my goodness it was amazing, I then had yoghurt... Something else lacking from my Asian diet, bliss.

After gorging on toast for an hour we sat and chatted before heading out to the bus stop just before nine am. We knew the bus was supposedly passing at ten am so thought it may well come early, silly I know... It will be late if anything. We sat and rested on our bags letting our breakfast settle whilst chatting and saying no to every person that rode by, some offering taxis, some cyclos and some mother bikes... Gets really annoying after a while. Whilst waiting I had a little peek in a shop next door but the women wouldn't settle with me on the price of a handicraft... She wanted five dollars and I would only pay three so no sale there. We were then questioned by the girl on the other side who runs a travel agency and kept asking where we were going. When we mentioned the free big C bus she seemed as baffled as everyone else as to how we knew about it but did confirm it came along this road.

By eleven o'clock the bus was yet to appear and we were fed up with waiting so were debating just staying in Hoi An but in a place with a pool (we only want to sunbathe and chill out). We decided to walk up the road towards the bus station (where the bus departs from). There were a few hotels up that road that we could check out, we grabbed our bags and took a slow and sweaty walk the km or so it was to the station, whilst checking out the odd hotel on route and again saying no to everyone. The hotels were overpriced all along the road so that was a no go but we did find several cafes and restaurants offering draught beer for three thousand dong (nine pence)... Cheapest yet. We carried on walking getting more and more annoyed at the fact we were once again waiting for this damn bus, which once again hadn't turned up an we were once again sweating like pigs and no nearer our destination. This is what is so frustrating about this place, everything is a pain, slow and challenging and no one ever gives you a straight answer... Gets really tiring after a while.

We eventually found the bus station and I dropped my bag off my bag in a sweaty strop and sat down completely deflated. Steven spotted a sign soon after advertising the big C service and headed over while I sat grumping. Soon enough a women asked me if we wanted 'big C bus' to which I replied yes and she just kept saying 'no, no, no'... I asked if that was as in ever or just today then she said 'two pm' to which I just went back to sulking. Steven was chatting to two guys at the board who seemed to be a bit more helpful and returned saying it was apparently leaving at one thirty pm, with no word of the bus that had failed to turn up at all.

We sat down and decided I may as well check out the hotel opposite as it has a pool and was on my original list, I left Steven enjoying the shade and headed over to ask the price... The women said twenty two dollars and wouldn't budge and that was more than my research suggested. At this point a fellow traveller asked if we needed any help and I said we are waiting for the free big C bus to take us to DaNang. At this point the receptionist piped up and said it wasn't free... It cost thirty thousand dong and was only free on the way back. The traveller suggested the public bus and I informed her we already knew all about that... the fact it was at the northern bus station was again frustrating but maybe still an option as only twenty thousand (if you haggle right) and far more regular. Right now I wanted to be lying on a beach listening to music and not speaking to anyone.

I headed back over to Steven and told him what the receptionist had said and to be honest the air turned a little blue. We decided to give up on the stupid bus and head back in town where we could make a plan... Maybe heading to Nha Trang instead. On the way back in we tried a couple more hotels with no avail before heading up the street to a travel agent where we decided to book a night bus to Nha Trang... Only problem being the buses were full tonight, of course.

We booked on tomorrow's and then headed back down the street to find a guest house, after a few failed attempts we stumbled on 'Hoa Binh' hotel where a room was fifteen dollars with breakfast and a pool... Although by pool they mean a weird thing in the reception so wouldn't really count that. We decided to take it as the lady was lovely and we shut the door on our already cooled air con room falling back on the bed exhausted. We had again walked km after km in the hot muggy Vietnamese heat while carrying a good twenty kilos on our backs no again had no end result.

We decided to chill out for a little while reading our books and watching telly before heading out into the heat again. We researched Nha Trang hotels and thankfully it appeared to be a lot easier to find cheap accommodation so that was one weight lifted. We then checked out this hotel and were glad to read that the buffet breakfast here is awesome and even has pancakes.... Errrr hello. After a massive chill out we headed out for a three thousand dong beer or two at a nearby cafe...

We sat down, ordered the beer and then a big C bus rolled past, I was actually speechless and could not help but laugh... Hysterically like a crazy women, how ironic? It didn't help that another went past about five mins later... Speechless.

We drank our beers and a second before heading back to our hotel to order dinner, we couldn't face the water front today and the prices in the hotel were actually quite reasonable. We sat down next to the pool and ordered egg plant in tomato sauce (well we ordered tofu but egg plant came), then some cabbage in garlic... Both of these came with rice, which was great so Steven ordered some deep fried spring rolls too. I'm not sure why considering I don't like deep fried food and Steven has been off spring rolls since Burma... Weird.

The food was good and went down a treat... Apart from the spring rolls so we retreated to our room to recover. Here we watched TV, had the most amazing showers ever and caught up with family at home. Today is Father's Day so it seemed pretty apt. Now we are lying in bed looking forward to pancakes tomorrow for breakfast and Stevens again eaten his weight in Oreos...