Noisy! That's the best way I can describe our 8 hour train journey to Nha Trang. We can officially confirm that we have totally mastered the art of packing and carrying our back packs and it is second nature to us now; everything has its special place or pocket so that we are not constantly rummaging and losing things and we now sling the packs on our backs and stride off like seasoned travellers; no more top heavy wobbling about like a couple of old soaks. ...

We're in love!!!!!! NO NOT ME and DAVE!!!!, We are in love with Hoi An. So much so we have booked 2 extra nights here. We arrived here following the coach journey from hell . For some strange reason, the only coach from Hue to Hoi An is a sleeper coach which travels during the day. This means you have to lie down for 4 hours in broad daylight in pretty claustrophobic conditions, shoes off and feet tucked into this box thing. When we first got to our seats/beds...

Well, what an experience that was! We booked an overnight train from Hanoi to Hui, and having been told all the tourist trains were fully booked, we booked what we were told was the next best thing;a soft sleeper train. We waited at the train station and looked with horror at the hard sleeper carriages then the 3 tier carriages [we prayed we wouldn't be on one of those], so we were comparatively pleased to see the 2 tier ones; until we realised that one of us ...

Well, yes, we are doing the 'tourist thing' we're not yet brave enough to go 'off the beaten track' and we have figured that, as this is our first visit to Vietnam, there is enough to see on the 'tourist trail' without having to cope with the possibility of malarial mosquitoes, language barriers and scams which leave you miles from no-where alone and robbed. [Well according to some of the scary web sites we've looked at] So, we find ourselves on Halong Bay, o...

Well after leaving cold and snowy England we arrived in cold and wet Hanoi! Dave's face was a picture as he watched the pouring rain from the taxi window. We had a long trip from England, travelling by bus at 4 am to Heathrow, flying to Bahrain, Bangkok and then to Hanoi. Tired cold and hungry we booked into our quaint hostel, dropped our overflowing unwieldy back packs [yes I know we should have left the iron, hairdryer laptop and half the clothes and toiletries...