18 hours and 1 very strange breakfast later our bus arrived in Hue. I was sooo glad to be able to shower and change clothes even if I was crammed into a tiny restroom downstairs at backpackers. We had to wait around an hour to check in anyway so that passed the time. We only had one day in Hue but apart from the Citadel there wasn't a lot to do. We went to the market and every bar or restaurant we passed had different happy hours that night. Our 'mixed' dorm was all girls including 2 Swedish girls who were working out outside and an Irish girl who had been teaching in Hanoi for 4 months with an English centre. Everyone in our room had early starts so it was a pretty uneventful night.

Le Family Riders

We completely underestimated how long it would take to repack the stuff we had taken out for just one night! Im glad we have a few settled nights after this. We were up early for the motorbike tour which was made easier by a nice cup of tea and banana pancakes for breakfast - all included in the £4 each we payed for the night of course. After waiting for a German couple and a Canadian couple to join our group we set off with Thuy, her brothers and her cousin. I was expecting big scooters so was surprised and a little nervous to see just a normal motorbike. I was on a bike with one of Thuy's brothers Ken and Paula was with their cousin.

Ken was great and after a while I started to relax, there were still times when I felt a bit nervous but not unsafe. The tour included a lot more than we expected. We stopped at a rice making factory where a woman showed us how the work was done by hand, using only sikple wooden machinery to help. I had my fortune told while I was here. Apparently I will soon meet a 25 year old boyfriend who I will be with for 2 years before he makes me cry and I say bye bye! Then when I'm 27, I will meet a 28 year old who is a good man and will buy me diamonds and a big house. I will have 3 children, a boy at 29, 4 years later a girl and at 35 another girl before I stop (thank god). Next year I will get a new job with lots of money. I laughed and she just kept saying 'I never joke', she was fantastic for 87!!

We also visited Marble mountain (more pagodas), Danang beach - finally an ice-cream on the beach in the sun and elephant springs. The carved elephants were impressive but I wasn't so impressed with the rickety bridge you had to cross to reach them. The local people apparently carved the statues to say sorry for driving the elephants away through hunting but the elephants never returned. Ken kept threatening to leave me shouting 'bye bye Laura' which he thought was hilarious. All of the family's English was very good and they gave us loads of information about each stop off. They didn't just show you the sights like we had experienced before.

We drove through the Hai Van pass like they did on top gear but Paula and I both did it on the same bike as her driver had to go and fix a flat tyre. You felt secure like this because you were squeezed on but you could also feel the lean a lot more whenever the bike turned. We had lunch at a seafood restaurant by the lakes and the guys just kept refilling our bowls, I had to move mine away in the end to stop them. Paula's guide had returned by then so we replaced her by putting Jelly on the front of the bike.

We stopped at some bunkers used during the French and American wars for more coffee before we moved on to Danang beach. The beach was lovely but you could tell it was a more touristy area with lots of big resort hoteks around and more being built. Of the places we have visited so far it felt most like a holiday resort and I'm glad we didn't choose to stay here. When we reached Hoi An we were dropped off at their cousin's house (which was also a tailors, what a fantastic marketing device!). We looked at material and dresses but they were charging double the price in Hanoi. Our drivers dropped us to the hotel with our luggage where I nearly fell off the bike, I had done so well all day! They all had great personalities and sense of humour and I would definitely recommend their tour to others.

Hotel Vaia in Hoi An was amazing - it was clean, had hot water, soft beds, free tea and coffee all day and a free cocktail between 4 and 6 everyday. The breakfasts were ok, a bit limited but it was included in the price so can't complain. We ditched bags and went to find food. We stumbled across Moe's tavern (as in the Simpsons) except it was a reggae bar and had pizza, not very Vietnamese but it was good and cheap. Plus we got a free rum and coke each and it was happy hour so 2 for 1 vodkas for £1. The main streets were very quiet so we crossed to a little island section, An Hoi, to another happy hour and cheap cocktails. We met a guy there from Harlow who was a web designer and had worked in Vietnam for 6 years. According to him he had owned most of the bars in Hoi An at one point or another and has also managed Flow bar when he lived in Hanoi. We were completely unimpressed so I think he toned down the bragging a bit after that. Most of the bars were dead so we headed back to the hotel around midnight.

Hoi An was actually much cheaper than we expected and they argue with you less over prices. During the day we wandered around the market and kept getting told 'you look for free' - thanks for that. One woman led us to an indoor market with lots of fabric and tailoring services. The prices she quoted were much cheaper than any of the shops so we got our dresses made. We had traditional Cao Lau for lunch which was pork and a different type of noodles and what looked a bit like crackling. It was delicious and the taste had more of a Chinese flavour to it than the food in Hanoi. We were back at the hotel in time for free cocktails and had a choice of a mojito or sangria. Not normally a fan of either but the mojito was ok. We chatted eith one of the receptionists who works there for 24 hour shifts, sleeping there overnight every other day but she seemed to love her job. She didn't understand any of our Vietnamese, I'm blaming it on the different accent!

We made use of the hotel free bikes to ride to the beach in the evening but by the time we got there it was dark and quite eerie, there were so many hotels and restauants but no people. Even when we rode back (6k in total) and headed out for food all of the restaurants were dead and the bars we saw the night before were empty, even backpackers. The only place with any sign of life was Infinity bar which had quite good music and BOGOF cocktails for £2 and mixed drinks for £1.20. There were even giving away free small bottles of vodka to groups of more than 4 - we need to find another pair! The people in there were quite a bit older than us and even the 2 grouos of backpackers were very calm. We had an early start for our trip the next day so headed home around midnight again through deserted streets.

7.30 pick up for our Cham Islands trip so waited in reception after breakfast at the hotel. At 8.15 we were syill waiting and the hotel got a call to say the trip was cancelled because the waters around the islands were too rough even though the weather outside looked gorgeous. We switched plans and booked onto a bike tour around the countryside after going back to bed for a few hours (still catching up on sleep from the weekend!). We found a really nice restaurant run by a man and his wife that did good cheap food before we were picked up for the tour ... on scooters.

We took a boat across the river with the bikes on before we started cycling. The girls taking the tour, Lan and Nam, were great they were only 21 and very modern in the way they spoke and acted. They had a wicked sense of humour and understood sarcasm, they definitely made the trip more fun. During the tour we got to see how straw mats were weaved which is a tradition that may die out soon as many of the younger generation do not know how to do it. We also saw how they made incense sticks and inlaid mother of pearl into wood. All the cutting of intricate shapes in the pearl and cutting of wood was done by hand as was the engraving once it had set. We saw traditional boats with eyes on the front. Apparently they all have them and there are different stories explaining why. The men say it is to make them look like a big sea monster to protect them from monsters in the sea. The women say it is so the drunken fishermen know which end is the front!

My favourite part of the day was paddling a basket boat. They were made to look like big baskets because the French put a tax on boats and the Vietnamese did not want to pay it. Whenever inspectors came around they would fill it with rice so they didn't have to pay the tax. We went down to a small river to have a go, you had to paddle in a figure of 8 to go in a straight line otherwise you would just end up turning in circles. It was actually easier than it looked and sitting right back on your heels it was easy to keep your balance. Paula ended up with the old lady who showed us how to steer actually in her boat as part of a rescue mission to bring back one of the other girls. One of the girls taking the tour had to be saved as well the old woman climbed from one boat to the other without unbalancing either. There was an American girl with us who refused to go in as she 'knew more about parasites than the average person' - bore off! She was weird and kept getting left behind and holding up the group. We became experts when the toilet we stopped at was a squat. Some of the others had never used one so we discussed techniques!

While we were cycling back to the ferry, Paula found a kitten by the side of the road by open fields. She couldn't leave it so put it in her basket and rode with it until we found some houses. Lan wasn't comfortable taking it the whole way back so Paula (AKA Rolf Harris) left it there. We crossed back by ferry and educated the other travellers about dog restaurants, we were surprised that these only seemed to be in Hanoi. It was actually a much better trip than we thought it would be even though we ended up with severe arse ache after!

Cham Islands take 2 went ahead the next morning although we were a little apprehensive when we saw that we were the only 2 English people on the boat. There were 3 Chinese families who were very nice and we had our own guide. One of the Chinese guys said Ronnie O'Sullivan was his idol but most of them did not speak much English. The islands were pretty and we saw another temple (great) but I enjoyed the speedboat ride more. The beach was beautiful but the water was freezing and unfortunately it was too murky to see any of the coral when snorkelling. The snorkelling freaked me out a bit anyway because I couldnt control my breathing properly. The Chinese guys asked to take a photo with us, don't find this strange at all anymore. There was also one Vietnamese couple with us and the wife was so moody I don't know why she was there. She clung to her husband on the speedboat, just sat on the beach while we snorkelled and nearly knocked me out trying to block the sun coming into the van on the way back!

We had a heavy night drinking to say farewell to Hoi An even though there were still not many people around. I can safely say we made the most of the happy hours and free drinks given to us by one of the bar owners! We listened to music chosen by the people in the bars through YouTube so that was hit and miss, Paula smashed her phone again and now the screen is completely blank and we fell asleep after getting in at 4am with all the lights on ... somehow I managed even in that state to get us up in time to pack, impressive!