Vietnam

No-one there spoke english, but one of the men on the border post took pity on us and phoned a woman who turned up on a scooter. She not only spoke english, but also arranged a car and driver to come up to the border post, pick us up, and drive us to Vinh. It all took a lot of time, but worked out very well for us, dropping us off outside the railway station, where we could wander around and get a hotel not too far away.

We were only in Vinh for a short while before catching a train to Hue. It did, however, introduce us to Highlands, a chain of western-style coffee shops that became our go-to breakfast place in Vietnam for latte and a croissant.

We had booked a place in Hue, but arrived very late at night. Mr Google struck again - led us past the entrance to the building and around in a huge circle through a complex of buildings full of barking dogs and irate owners until someone finally called out to tell us to go the other way!

Hue was a lovely place to walk around. Situated on the Perfume River, it has the historic Imperial City to explore, and a very pleasant river-side area close to where we were staying. The Imperial City was fantastic - a very large area of highly decorated buildings and some lovely gardens. We spent a very long day there, and stopped of for a quick drink at a cafe just outside the Citadel walls. It wasn't a quick drink at all - this was one of the best cafes we've ever had the pleasure of being in - it had atmosphere to burn! The best of the gardens inside the Imperial City was outshone by the beautiful garden inside this restaurant. We were happy to just sit and enjoy being there.

From Hue it was another train trip, this time to Da Nang. The city is known for its beaches, but the area we were in had a beach that was fairly uninspiring. Indeed, Da Nang did little for us - just another large city. We were happy to get a bus down to Hoi An, leaving a day earlier than we had planned. The bus was a bit of a surprise; it was a sleeper bus (not shown on the ticket), and proved to be less than comfortable for old bodies - won't do that again!

Hoi An was great. We had a very good apartment, a bit far (3km) from the centre of the old town, but still walkable, and a fantastic cafe (Old Rice Field) just down the way. We stayed six nights in Hoi An, taking the opportunity to visit My Son and Marble Mountain on day trips. Our last night there was timed to coincide with the full moon, and the lantern festival, which was as spectacular as the descriptions suggest.

We hired a car to take us back to Da Nang and took the train overnight to Ho Chi Minh City - but the railway station is still called Saigon. We had booked a hotel described as "chic" but it was over-the-top China meets France style. We had a room with an adjoining door into the next room. Luckily it had a bolt on our side - the people next door tried to get into our room on two nights - crashing against the door. That was the least of their annoying us. For the three nights we were there they came back to the hotel at about ten o'clock and then yelled, sang, grunted, laughed and carried on until six o'clock the next morning. We concluded they were making porn movies. We never saw them.

Exhausted, we set off for the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, which proved to be a very laid-back place - wide streets, less traffic, lots of markets. We took a pre-dawn boat up the river to the floating market, but also visited little side canals, which were just as interesting for us. Then it was back to Saigon (but a different hotel!) and a bus the next day to Cambodia.