22/10/09 Nha Trang (Friday) We all had a terrible night sleep and Liz woke first to see a lovely sunrise over the coastline we were driving past. It was only about 5.30 but all the fishermen were out and little boats were moving about the water in a pink haze. The others woke too and as we drove into Nha Trang we were all amazed to see hundreds of people at the beach swimming and joining excercise classes. We even wsaw a couple having wedding photos taken and it...

19/10/09 Hue to Hoi An (Tuesday) We had a short 4 hour ride to Hoi An and passed thorugh Da Nang on the way. It is a horrible place but there is a big port here and was the first place the Americans landed in Vietnam. Poor b*****s must have been in quite a shock when they arrived as it is not very nice. We arrived in Hoi An at 1 pm and the bus driver did the usual trick of stopping the bus outside a mates hotel to get a bit of commission if anyone stays there. P...

17/10/09 Hue We had a terrible nights sleep on the bus. We were over the back wheels and really got bounced around. Vietnamese drivers use their horns every few minutes to warn other drivers they are on the road, overtaking, coming behind them and seemingly for no apparent reason so we were woken constantly. There were several unexplained random stops at the side of the road for long perioods too as well as a few emergency stops. Poor Phil ended up being spooned...

16/10/09 Nihn Bihn (Friday) Another rainy day in Hanoi. We collected all our luggage together for a trip to Nihn Bihn follwed by a night bus through to Hue further down south. The day trip was on the route so we were being dropped off after at a hotel to wait for the bus. A tiny bus arrived to collect us and the guide looked a bit shocked as there was nowhere to put it all. He said he knew all about our arrangements for later but we were doubtful. Most of the ba...

15/10/09 Halong Bay We woke up early to join our day tour to see Halong Bay. As Jennifer hadn't called to cancel we assumed we were goingand just after 8 the bus arrived to collect us. At breakfast our good friends the Americans had whined at us about the day trip and thought they were on the same one as us. We are pleased to report they weren't on our trip!! After about an hours driving around the town picking up all the passengers we finally headed out of Hano...