In the absence of a honking horn, it was much easier to sleep on the train than the bus, although we were roused somewhat by a crazed Vietnamese guy who burst into our compartment shouting incoherently and waving his arms! We still don’t know what that was all about…

We arrived in Hoi An about 5 am and asked one of the many clamouring taxi drivers to take us to a hotel, any hotel that was open would do. After a bit of haggling we ended up in a superb 3-star hotel. All the hotels throughout Vietnam have been great value but this one took the biscuit; it had a swimming pool, free internet, a buffet breakfast and each room was opulently decorated, complete with a fridge, TV and air-con – all for 8 pounds a night!

Hoi An is such a picturesque little town. All of the buildings are painted a pale shade of yellow with dark oak window and door frames and each street is festooned with hanging oriental lanterns which light the town by night, their refelections dancing in the inky river which disects it.

There’s little to do other than soak up the ambient surroundings and imbibe the local cuisine, but we did go on an hour-long boat trip up the river and a quick bike ride to a nearby beach. Its also the tailoring capital of Vietnam, so Amy had a maxi dress made to measure (when in Rome, she says…!)

We got a bit too used to the luxurious trappings of our hotel and temporarily forgot we were on a budget when we booked the luxury sleeper train to Hanoi. This turned out to be a rip-off (Livitrains – don’t use them!), and was just a slightly cleaner carriage bolted onto the normal train. But we didn’t have the in-flight entertainment of the crazy Vietnamese guy. The scenery was spectacular though as we hurtled up the coast to Hanoi.

Nha Trang is a beach resort which was a 12-hour ‘sleeper’ bus journey from Saigon (the term is used loosely as nobody does much sleeping, thanks in no small part to the sadistic honking of the driver). It has a spotless sandy beach which runs alongside a wide promenade. On the first day the waves were about 7 or 8 foot high! They would pick you up and toss you around like a rag doll before dumping you into the sand. Great fun, and we laughed hysterically through mouthfuls of sand!

The next day we went on a Booze Cruise, which has been a life-long ambition of Tom, one of our travelling companions for about 5 weeks now, and he wasn’t disappointed! We went snorkelling and diving in the South China Sea, sunbathed on a secluded island (obviously boozing all the time); they laid on a huge lunch before we swam to a floating bar (Amy even got in the sea for that!). But the best part of the day was the – unexpected – live music. We groaned when they wheeled out a makeshift drum kit of watering cans and old buckets, and two microphones, but they furnished an electric guitar from somewhere and turned out to be really good! Amy got dragged up on stage to sing ‘Yellow Submarine’. She looked mortified.

In order to recover, the next day we went to a nearby health spa for a mud bath and mineral soak. Just what we needed and we ended up staying the whole day.

We then booked a sleeper train to Hoi An to continue on our journey to the far North of Vietnam. Hopefully it is not as ambitiously titled as the bus.