Up at 7.30am and didn't have the best nights sleep. The room wasn't brilliant - floor in the bathroom was wet, from the hose that they use instead of toilet paper, and everything in the room felt damp. We couldn't be bothered changing rooms last night though because we were too tired. Packing and unpacking the backpack is getting very tedious too. So, not a good start to the day.

But we soon had a smile on our face when today's tour started! Motorcycle tour (as passengers)! Therese was like a kid on Christmas day, she couldn't wait. And she got this oldish Vietnamese guy who wore these cool dark shades and pulled some right poses for the camera. We all got on the bikes and sat ready to go, then all the drivers shouted "1,2,3, Yeeehar!" - I actually didn't even know what they said until later in the day when they told us they like cowboys and Indians films.

We set off anyway, straight into the busy traffic of Hue city, straight across junctions with our drivers just papping their horns and stopping for nothing, weaving in and out of the traffic. We loved it. Then we got out into the open countryside past all the rice fields and farmers, and the little villages. We stopped in one of them and was shown how the rice fields are farmed by the main motorcycle tour guide and this little old woman. Then she showed how she got the babies to sleep and started singing what must have been a nursery rhyme....there's no way that any baby would get to sleep with that racket. Dan and Gregory, from our tour group, started laughing hysterically which got everybody else going. Then she showed us this thing that a lot of people eat - it's like a soft nut type thing with a leaf and limestone paste. She put some in her mouth and started chewing it and it makes your lips go red. Sue decided to try some and while we were watching her eat it, food kept dropping out of the old woman's mouth! So that got us all laughing again. And then Dan tried some...his face showed that he definitely wasn't enjoying it.

We had a walk around the small village Market that had all the fresh veg and meat...very fresh meat, as in fish still half alive in shallow buckets. After that we had Vietnamese coffee in the Market - it's very strong stuff! Also had this peanut brittle type stuff which was really good.

Finally time to jump back on the bikes! This time it was like something out of James Bond. We were going through all these little back alleyways between all the houses, then out onto a main street, then back in to an alleyway - got the adrenaline going! There was about 8 of us flying through these streets with the drivers fly around the corners papping to make people know we are on our way around the corner so move out the way. Can't believe there aren't more accidents. Next stop was to a disabled woman who makes the little bamboo hats - picked up a small one for a souvenir.

We went driving to a few more places, a mausoleum, pagoda, an old (unused!) fighting ground for elephant against tiger fighting (they used to take the fangs out of the tigers to give the elephant a better chance...) and also to this really nice spot right out of the city that had amazing views of perfume river and far out in to the country.

Last stop was to a nunnery for lunch. They served us absolutely loads of food. We're not taken by Vietnamese food at all, but there was a couple of nice things - Therese liked it more than I did. The nuns here have all their hair shaved off which we didn't realise or know why.

Had a really good time, and definitely the best way to get around and see things. We were away 5 hours and it only cost $15! if it hadn't rained all the time we'd have done the same in Hoi An.

It was around 1pm and we were supposed to be setting off for our train at 1.45pm but then our tour leader got bad news that it wouldn't be arriving until about 5pm. So we waited around in the hotel for a while and went out and got some booze and snacks for the bus. Then at about 4pm we were told it was delayed until 11pm!!! So annoying and a massive waste of time! To cheer us up, we went for Happy Hour at DMZ Bar - 3 for 2 on bottles of Huda beer, making it 40p a bottle! Free pool too. At about 6.30pm we got a message to say that we were setting off at 7 because the train was coming in earlier.

It was about 8.45pm by the time we got the stupid thing. Only 4 per cabin this time (instead of 6 in China) and we shared with Dan and Sue. Between us we had all kinds if snacks with our last purchase being Ritz crackers and Laughing Cow Cheese...nice!
It was really warm on the train and difficult to play cards - we had a game of bulls*** though (that is a real card game!). Cards lasted one game and then we moved on to "who am I". Didn't last long either.
I was really tired and kept nodding off as well.

Called it a night at about midnight...only another 9 hours on this train!!