Vietnam Part 2 - Hue to Saigon, July 2011

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After our first sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue (the first of many!) we checked into a hostel to meet a very lovely english girl - Laura, she motivated us to actually do something with our first day in Hue, so off we headed on the back of a motorbike each to see a bit of culture. Probably our most cultural day to date and arriving back very windswept and dusty we bumped into some friends from Halong Bay and headed out for a night of danish drinking games and bieber impersonations (bieber continued to make an appearance every step along the way in Vietnam).

After seeing all of Hue in one day we were a little bit at a loss the next day so made friends with a vietnamese australian and a drunk recovering alchoholic who treated us to a day at a pool, one day of culture and we already needed a break!

After Hue we got another bus down the coast to the town of Hoi An - a laid back town on the river with little market streets and lanterns everywhere! We carried on travelling with Laura, Mark and Craig (the 2 from Halong Bay) so spent a few evenings' happy hours in their company resulting in a few days of beach and poolside chilling. We soon learnt not to trust the gangs of motorcyclists after dark and to not challenge a danish girl to a drinking match and then headed down to Nha Trang.

Arriving in Nha Trang, basically an up and coming beach resort with some crazy muggings, we booked ourselves on the funky monkey day trip. With a name like that how could it not be good?! Apparently we were wrong, we got squashed into this boat full of vietnamese tourists and taken to the worst aquarium any of us had seen. The day improved after some more jumping from the roof of a boat and ocean bar, however the highlight had to be the funky monkey ''boyband'', a cross between karaoke and the most mixed up band you've ever seen. Probably the weirdest way to spend a lunchtime. Another day was spent in VinpearlLand - an island dedicated to a water park and you've got to get a cable car to get there...best idea ever! It was a pretty good way to say goodbye to Mark who had to head back to the UK.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City was the next stop after yet another night bus, not too pleasant an arrival at 6am to end of the world rainstorm but after a recovery had some time to explore seeing the Notre Dame II (basically just a smaller version) and some crazy traffic. On visiting Saigon we had to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels, where we learned all about the Vietnamese defence against the Americans during the war; booby traps, sniper holes, AK47 firing range and a labyrinth system of tunnels running for miles and miles to the river. Sarah and Craig headed down into the tunnels which were to narrow to turn in and too short to stand in (pretty intense with the dark and the heat!)

Our last night in Saigon had to be the most memorable and a great way to see out the country; hijacking squid bikes, danger 5's resulting in nipple piercing's (don't worry Mum we didn't lose!) and a lady gaga inspired hooker (we only got a photo).

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