Paul was equipped with his headphones and music for the "sleeper" bus to Ninh Binh, but I only had earplugs. So, when the toilet door started banging and the toilet kept flushing every two minutes by itself I couldn't get back to sleep. We were dropped off at 5am outside town, a taxi driver offered to drop us off at our hotel for 50,000 VND (£1.45), which was a bargain - not sure I would get up in the middle of a drizzly night for £1.45. On arriving at our hote...

We got a local bus at 11.20am from Hue's northern local bus station. It was 150,000 VND (£4 each) for a 5 hour ride and took us to the door of our homestay in Phong Nha town. It was, however, a form of Vietnamese torture. Vietnamese pop music played as loud as the speakers could blast it. I had ear plugs in and it was still way too loud for me! The bus staff actually seemed to enjoy the fact that we were suffering. One of the passengers near us kept clearing his...

We got a bus from Hoi An to Hue, which took us past the Bach Ma National Park - lakes set in forested hills. It was a rainy day, our first one in months, so the park looked a bit misty and drab. We were looking forward to another bargain hotel - 4 star Camellia Hue Hotel - £19.10 per room per night including breakfast and bicycle hire. Hue is a fairly big town but it wasn't as busy as others we had been to. The bus dropped us at a central location, so we were ab...

First off - a big THANK YOU - to everyone who has sent us messages - we really appreciate it - makes us feel our efforts are worthwhile; keep them a coming. OK - so we decided to take the overnight 'hard' sleeper train from Nha Trang to Hoi An - some 470km but at only 405k VND (£12) each it was cheap - plus saved us a night's hotel costs. It is 6 in a berth/cabin with 3 bunks either side - we got the last bunks - top ones! As it was we shared with 2 Brits and 2 ...

Apparently it has taken only a year for the transformation to take place, but Nha Trang is now a tourist destination with a heavy Russian bias. All the signage is now in Russian and their happy smiling faces can be seen everywhere. Many restaurants have changed their names to Mockba. Happy Hour has now been changed to miserable hour (just kidding). I have just learned, however, that it is seen as a sign of weakness in Russia to smile all of the time. Light bulb m...