From Hanoi, our journey went south down the eastern side of Vietnam, visiting the towns of Hue, Hoi An and Nha Trang. The overnight sleeper train (incredible scenery in the early morning through endless rice paddies and along the coastline) brought us from Hanoi to our next destination, the former kingdom capital of Hue. Hue was pleasant enough, although a lot of the historic buildings were destroyed by the Americans during the war. Those that werent were allowed to fall into serious disrepair as they related to a period that the Communist government wanted to forget about. The government's stance has changed of late (probably due solely to the possibility of tourist dollars), and whilst some restoration work has taken place, the majority of sites are little more than piles of rubble. After a couple of days visiting the 'highlights' in 40 degree heat and paying 3 times the locals rate for entry to what were mostly unimpressive remains we had seen more than enough. Whilst we found the ancient historic side of Hue to be pretty average, the town's location meant it was a great place for exploring sites relating to a more recent conflict. For two people whose knowledge about the US / Vietnam war extended as far as knowing that Forest Gump and his mate Bubba fought in it, our time in Vietnam was proving to be extremely interesting. We spent an excellent day touring the sites of the former demilitarized zone that separated north and south Vietnam. Taking in museums, battle sites and tunnel networks. From Hue we travelled by bus to Hoi An, about 5 hours to the south. This was our longest journey to date by road and an experience to say the least. Vietnamese roads are the most dangerous we have encountered so far. We watched countless near misses and were held up in the aftermath of 3 separate head on collisions between lorries. We have been surprised to learn that you have to study and take a test to be able to drive on the roads. Quite what they are taught is anyones guess. Hoi An is a market town that fortunately escaped bombing in the war. What remains today is bustling place that seems stuck in a time warp. With the exception of scooters, no vehicles are allowed in the town centre, so goods are transported around by bicycle, wooden cart or in baskets suspended from either end of a length of bamboo carried on a persons shoulder. All this going on amidst crumbling french colonial buildings made for a wonderful sight. We spent a couple of days wandering the streets and taking it easy. Next stop was Nha Trang - Vietnam's premier beach resort town. After the bus journey a couple of days before, we figured flying was safer than 12 hours thundering along highway 1. Nha Trang is the only place in Vietnam to scuba dive and this was the reason we had made the trip. Reports of dynamite and cyanide (!!) fishing together with coral harvesting by the locals meant that our expectations were pretty low. The diving we did turned out to be excellent. Not many fish, and certainly no big stuff, but the coral formations were incredible, with blanket coverage stretching for long distances in every direction. Between the diving we treated ourselves to a bit of luxury at a beach resort. Just like being on holiday! From Nha Trang, we braved the bus again for our journey inland to the hill station of Dalat. S