Settled into our hotel in Saigon in the backpacker quarter amongst all the tour shops and bars....back to a city where you play real life Frogger every time you cross the road. Had a great plan to pay for everyones Xmas "goodies" with a night at the Casino, so put on our best beach shorts and headed out, had momentary glory 80 dollars up after some beginners luck, but it didn't last...consoled ourselves at the Saigon Saigon bar on the roof. Two he...

Finally arrived in Nha Trang after the slowest train journey ever....supposed to get in at 9pm, instead we arrived at 3am. Nha Trang is a beach resort place with lots of bars and clubs so we partied for a few days and got drunk at the rather posh Sailing Club. Went on the obligatory booze cruise which involved dancing on the boat to the sounds of the local 'boy band' and drinking shots of rice wine served from the floating bar. All very fun and not all ...

Travelled a few hours further south to a pretty UNESCO protected city called Hoi An - all cobbledy streets and French style houses. Caught up with Claire and Lexy again and spent a small fortune on new made to measure clothes... On one day we hired bikes and cycled to the beach about 5 KM away to sit in the sun. Sadly it wasnt to be the relaxing day we'd hoped and dreamed of... first we got into trouble for parking our bikes in the wrong place and got shout...

Finally left Hanoi and caught the overnight train south to Hue, a city about halfway down Vietnam. Spent the first day wandering around the Citadel and the market whilst being followed at all times by at least two cyclo drivers and a motobike man all yelling 'Cheap ride, cheap ride.' On the second day we went on the best tour of our trip so far.....riding on the back of a moto. It was wicked fun speeding through tiny villages and rice paddies where ever...

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!! After moving to a new hotel nearby featuring unused towels and clean sheets, we were all set for a new start in Vietnam and ventured cautiously into the Old Quarter with fellow journey from hell survivor Mima. Spent breakfast practising the newly introduced 'Brace, Brace, Brace' airline crash position for readiness to deal with the never ending stream of sellers. Slowly but surely with the help of 6p beer* our powers returned, but taki...