S: James has been desperate to ride a motorbike in Vietnam. I blame Top Gear myself lol. So we rented a motorbike one-way from Hoi An to Hue, and they would take our bags to the destination around 130km away. We were up early and out at 7am, first we headed to China Beach along the coast with its white sands, it was breath taking. I tried a Vietnamese coffee black and had to add the milk as J said it made my face go odd. Next we rode around the peninsula on Da Nang and even managed to find a trail up to the top of the mountain there. It was great at one stage the road was so over grown, we thought we might have to get off and cut some bushes back, and that was before the 14% hill incline lol.

J: Going over Monkey Mountain I could just hear my dad telling me "this scooter wasn't designed to go up these roads!" It was touch and go at some points if we would make it up, as not everything worked on the bike, the speedo & odometer where both broken I could honesty say I didn't know how fast I was going.

We then went around the Hoi Van pass instead of the shortcut tunnel, it was simply stunning scenery and thrilling riding the roads. It was brilliant knowing the Top Gear boys had been there.

We stopped for lunch in this amazing restaurant, Bé Thân, where we ordered live shell fish out of the tanks, decided on how we wanted them cooked and minutes later we had crabs and prawns which tasted out of this world. Just sitting in such wonderful scenery with good food and a beer felt surreal.

S: Bearing in mind we knew we still had a lot of miles to do, we decided to stop at Suoi Voi (Elephant springs). The natural springs were brilliant, little pools of water all around. We went for a swim and James started to talk to a Vietnamese family and soon beer was flowing all around. It was one of the girls birthday, and they had come to the springs to celebrate. It was great fun, we even got invited back to their house but as we had only rented the bikes we needed to carry on.

J: We were this close (imagine closely meeting fingers) to staying with the family as they were so welcoming, friendly & generous.

So we set off again on our journey knowing that it might be getting dark before we arrive. We took a lovely coast road on a part of land only maybe a few hundred feet across but miles long.

We started getting low on fuel at points and had to do some siphoning between bikes which was funny.

Then it started getting dark, not a problem, I felt like a pro at that point...... Then found out I had no lights! The road we were on had no streetlights and we were still 50km away! Slow and steady was the motto then, but we made it to our destination after one of the best days we've had so far! A real adventure accomplished.

Oh and later when we wanted some dinner the hostel we were staying at had more expensive beer but cheaper food than the hotel opposite, I asked if they would match the price, she said no, I asked if I could go get beer there, surprisingly she said yes so off I went and got the cheaper beer and brought it to our restaurant, every penny counts!

S: We went to check out a local tomb of Tu Duc, it was beautiful. The tomb was amazing and enormous, although the emperor had written his own autobiography before he died. Just to let you know we visited this on pushbikes, up a steep hill in 37 degrees heat. Let's just say it was a warm day lol. Then we visited the forbidden purple city and the citadel. Again, due to the war a lot of restoration was going on, but it didn't stop the ambience of the place. It also featured the tallest flagpole in Vietnam of 37m, it and the flag was massive.