This day was amazing.

We got up at half 6, with Julia promising some awful punishments if anyone was still in bed at 20 to 7, and packed our big bags for Hue and day bags for the ride. We checked out and went round to see the Thoi family who had been up for hours. We went over the arrangements one final time, and told them we'd be there by 3pm, which was a total guess but we wanted to be there early with our bags as we'd booked a a night bus from Hue to Hanoi at 5:30 and didn't want to miss it (Hue is nothing worth staying for).

They each told us a different route from the one we'd planned, but seemed so insistant that we ended up taking it, and I'm very glad we did, it was far superior.

Once we had swapped bags for bikes, we went for a big breakfast and psyched ourselves up. A couple more checks of Google maps just to be sure and we set off.

The first road was mildly busy and dragged on up away from the coast through small local villages. We were getting smiles and waves and toot-toots all the way, they loved seeing us whities trailing along on our motorbikes, though all get very concerned that we weren't covering up every inch of our skin against the sun.

The road slowly widened out into a big 3-lane duel-carriageway and we saw in the distance the mountains that separated the two cities. The first leg of the journey was to head for Danang, where we knew we had to cross a bridge and then tend to the left for a bit before heading right.

It only took a couple of hours to get to Danang, and the road was fairly empty, but then all of a sudden we found ourselves in a mosh-pit of motorbikes, mopeds and Toyota pick-ups. The traffic was incredible and there were to rules on the road at all, it was literally a case of tooting your horn repeatedly and heading out into the melee. One helpful local gave Abi the advise "ALWAYS peep peep" when stopped for a short while at a red light, and we followed it.

Again, they loved us there. Danang is a business city, and has zero for tourists, so isn't visited. Though it is still the 3rd biggest city in Vietnam. We saw pigs, goats, fishtanks, tables and even a coffin strapped to the back of some of the motorbikes that buzzed annoyingly along the roads.

Every now and then, we'd shout "HUE?!?!?!!?!" to someone on the pavement, and they'd excitedly gesture in the rough direction we should head in. We never got lost.

The first bridge we saw, we crossed. Though Lydia didn't see us pull over so I had to speed-weave through the madness to catch up with her, which was probably very dangerous, but tonnes of fun. We then headed over the bridge and nagivated the junctions at eather end, both of which were of course an absolute calamity. Strangely though, dispite the numerous near collisions between every vehicle, and the chorus of toots and peeps, there was no road rage - everyone was resigned to the fact that the roads are a nightmare, and rode them with a smile.

Once we were out of this mess, we followed in the direction we remembered the map looking like back in the morning on Google, and then ended up on a highway that felt like it was in the right direction. When all else failed, we made sure our shadows were still on the left-hand side, as that would mean the coast would be on the right as we were heading north.

We stopped off for a drink and to take a bit of a video diary. Morale was high and incident rate was low, so we sat around laughing at anything and everything and reading in the LP about what a dull place Danang is. On leaving, I again just said "Hue?!" to the owner of this little pavement "cafe" and he flung his arm in the direction we were already headed, so off we went.

This road continued for another 10 kiloms or so, with the mountains getting ever closer. We had planned to go through the tunnel under the mountains as we had been told the mountain road was too dangerous on bikes and would add hours and hours to our trip. However, we had already climed a few hundred metres into the foothills before we realised that we'd definately missed the tunned we could now see down below us.

These mountains were beautiful, covered in lush green foliage with little wooden houses scatted in seemingly random places throughout. To the right was a stunning view of the coastline and out across the sea. Everytime I looked out, I had to stop and say wow a few times and take some photos that look identical to the previous photos but still to beautiful.

Because I was the more confident on motorbikes, I had previously swapped with Lydia who had been given a rather ... dated model. This meant I had no kilometer-ometer or fuel gague, and I didn't know which gear I was in and it didn't start very well - so when we pulled over for a stop at some random point, just on the off chance of possibility, I asked a woman on the road side for petrol. Her daughter then scuttled off down the hill with a plastic bottle and was back in no time filling up my tank. They tried to rip us all off outrageously for this service, but we just ended up giving them a hundred thou (mooooore than enough) and zooming off, overtaking all the oiltankers and cement lorries for the second time as they had passed whilst we stopped.

The road curved and weaved up through the mountains, with the steepest incline being 12% (so not too bad) to the top, where the road kinked over into the next valley. The view from up here was stunning, and I stopped a while to take a few snaps and to investigate this rubble mess at the top, which I found out to be some guys home. There were a few ladies at the top selling water and coke to people who bussed along this road and stopped over at the top for a squat.

The others had gone on ahead as I wanted to spend longer, saying I'd catch them up. But when I got back to my bike, it didn't work. Thankfully we were at the very top, so I just kicked the pedal until the thing was in neutral and rolled down engine-less. This was also really nice, as it meant I could actually hear the jungle I was riding through as well as see it, and could still go at surprising speed. After a while, I kicked the gearbox into action and the engine roared back to life and spat out a load of s*** and nearly threw me off the front. It was fine after this.

I met the others at the bottom for official stop number 3 and a bit more of a video diary session and rehydrated myself. As soon as I stopped, the sweat which was normally being blown off by the breeze on the bikes had nowhere to go other than to stream off me by the litre - I looked like I'd jumped out of the shower within 2 minutes of stopping. Unbelievable. This was about the half way mark, though we had taken over half the time to get there - but then we had done the mountains so that wasn't a worry.

We were out of the mountains now and the road was wide and flat, and was just us 4 and load of massive trucks laden with everything under the sun. We upped the pace to about 70kph and flew along the road, still surrounded by beautiful views and we headed through farming land. This seemed to blend into the sea as the farmers extended these odd walls of soil and sticks and made water-fields is the best way I can describe it. Mostly rice being grown along this road, with some maze too.

We had one more stop off before things started getting urban again, in a place that seemed to specialise in warm water and mobile phones only. The old men who ran the place (in the middle of nowhere of course) sat all over our bikes and watched us intently, which was odd.

The final 30 kiloms was less interesting, and got gradually busier and busier and busier so the pace was slower and slower. There was a bit of confusion when we arrived at a river which we thought was the river running through the centre of Hue, but was actually a smaller one in the suburbs with all the roads around it named the same (using the city maps in the LP). Once reorientated, we headed into the centre of town and found our final destination very easily indeed. We had planned to meet Mr Thoi and 3 of his chums at the travel office from which we were getting the night bus to Hanoi, so it was fairly central.

Hue was very built up and very boring, again not really anything that would be worth us spending any time on.

When we pulled up the the Hanh Cafe, Mr Thoi waved us in with a smile and excitedly gestured that he had indeed remembered our bags. We had arrived at 2:15, well in good time. It was such a good feeling. One of the guys who was then taking the bike straight back to Hanoi started walking round it pursing his lips and clicking like a mechanic who's about to rip you off - tutting at every scratch on the thing (NONE of which I had caused). Mr Thoi spotted him and told him off, but he still glared at me as I handed over the key which I found amusing. We waved them off, collected our bags, and went to the hostel next door where we paid to have a shower and change in a couple of their rooms.

We were all filthy. All the grit, grime, sand and slime that we had driven through was deposited in a film all over our sweaty skin. It wouldn't even wash off in the shower, every speck needed scrubbing. Julia and I had a proper room at the top of the hotel and Abi and Lydia took the staff room shower, which apparently had some girl writhing in the corner with yellow fever watching them change.

After a good wash and change, we had food in the hostel - which was apparently beef but probably dog - and waited for our bus. Our bus was actually a minibus, which then took us to an actual bus where our bags were loaded ontop of what looked like a crate of chickens (the bags emerged the following day soaked through with something wet). The driver let the others on, but then decided to ban me from coming on, for no apparent reason. So I went off and walked back on again, and was again barred. So I walked off and back on again, and jumped over him.

It was again a 2 level, 3 isle static recliner bus built for a maximum height of 5'10". I wedged myself into a bed, and then spotted a really long flat one next to me which would have been perfect if it wasn't for the fact that the window, and indeed entire bus-side next to it was missing, and had been replaced with clingfilm and a bit of celotape. So I let someone else take that one. Coincidentally we saw 3 girls on this bus that we had seen on our last night bus from Mui Ne to Hoi An.

As was my routine, I watched a bit of a film on my iPod, then slipped the temazepam. However I was so uncomfortable this time that it totally failed to sedate me to the point of hypnosis, rather to make me uncomfortable and drowsy like I'd been drinking for 9 hours straight. I moved bed 6 times as the bus stopped and there was opportunity for a shuffle. I ended up on the long bed with the celophane window, and slept like a baby, for 2 hours before we arrived in Hanoi.

And that was the end of that 24 hours.