DAY SEVEN As the morning sun flooded through the cab at 5.30am, having not slept a wink through a chorus of snoring, gurgling and farting, and a party that lasted until 2 hours ago in an adjoins compartment, I blessed the saints of Pearl Jam who once again kept me company through a tight spell with their instrumentally sublime, at times gritty, others soulful, lyrically waxing tunes. At 7am, the other occupants were awoken by the alarm I had been asked to set......

DAY SIX I must put a disclaimer in first of all - I am actually actively encouraging Jasmin to write some of this, but to this point, unfortunately is my verbal diarrhoea you will have to put up with. The feverish hot plate that is Hanoi greeted our weary eyes with an abundance of blistering sunshine and the resultant combination of scintillating cooking aromas and the unfortunate by-products of rotting fish and sewerage. Quite a lot to process at 10am in the mo...

DAY FIVE Awakening to brilliant sunshine, Jasmin bounded about the Deluxe Double Room, while i groaned having had only minimal sleep yet again. Must drink more water, and not get so dehydrated! The mornings activities consisted of visiting the fishing villages that are sponsored by the tour company, as we were duly and constantly informed of how good Indochina Junk are to the local fishermen and their families. I think they actually might have come from heave...

DAY FOUR Today had promise...escaping the incredible intensity of Hanoi and it's constant chorus of motorbike horns to cruise the world heritage site that is Halong Bay ( seen on Top gear-Vietnam special, where they have to modify their motorbikes into sea faring craft and navigate to a remote floating fishing village). A luxury mini van arrived to transport Jasmin and i on a 4 hour drive to Halong city. Luxury indeed.... I have never seen so many features on a...

Day three A lengthened sleep refreshed the batteries, the onto a full day of being a tourist. Visited some incredible places - I have now come to realise that the Vietnamese really have a large soft spot for Ho Chi Minh, or ' Uncle Ho' as the locals like to refer to him. I prefer to call him a Funkmaster Ho, but that's just me. We visited an exhibition over 4 floors dedicated just to him - it's very much pro 'Ho'. In the eyes of the Vietnamese, he was a guardia...