We left the hotel and headed for the perfumed river to catch a dragon boat to see the Citadel which was the home of the emperor before he was forced to accede by the communist government. It was an interesting visit. Clearly it was once a grand palace. Like a lot of things in Vietnam the VC used them as hideouts during the war and the yanks bombed them. At 5pm we headed to the rail station for our next overnight trip, this time to Hanoi. Hoan our guide said 'G...

We went to the rail station at Nah Trang to catch the night train first to Da Nang then an onward bus to Hoi An. It was going to be 10 hours on the train. The sleeper compartments are for 6 people. Fortunately we only had 4 in ours. The beds fold from the wall in a bunk style. The mattress is about 1mm thick so it feels like you are sleeping on a board. A small pillow, 1 sheet and a blanket finish the bedding. The train was noisy and rickety. Once again it was e...

We waited for the night bus to Nah Trang with mixed emotions. For me I had had enough of Saigon. I'm glad we visited but I was not sorry to be leaving. It was dirty, noisy and next to impossible to move around. On the other hand we had been told that the night bus was dirty, uncomfortable and would be full of Vietnamese celebrating Xmas. When it turned up it was actually a nice air conditioned bus with a TV. The mix was half Vietnamese and half westerners. On th...

We pitched up at the Phnom Penh bus depot to meet the 8.30am bus to Ho Chi Minh City. It's Saigon to you and me and the locals still call it that. The bus depot is like everything else in Cambodia. It looks like total chaos but there is an order to it. 8.15 the bus arrives and we load our cases and take our seats. There is a driver and a representative. The bus is actually very nice. Air conditioned, reclining seats, toilet and TV. The nice young man in a tie ...