From Ninh Binh south to Saigon

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Our night bus arrived nearly on time, and we were shown to the last two bunks on board. It was very different to the other night buses that we have got, as they were chairs that reclined, but this had beds. It was like three rows of bunk beds, one row down each side of the bus and one down the middle. The downside on this bus was that I was by the toilet which stank, but I put a tissue over my nose and mouth which seemed to work OK.

We had to change buses at Hue, and arrived in Hoi An about lunchtime - a long travelling day and we were thirsty and hungry. We got our laundry done and after lunch relaxed in our room watching a film, until I saw a rat run across the beams in the roof. We were on the top floor of the hotel, so presumably they lived in the loft! After complaining to reception we were moved to a bigger room on the floor below that was thankfully rat free. The annoying thing is that we decided to have a nice hotel in Hoi An and paid more than at many other hotels we had stayed in.

The hotel was nice though and breakfast was served on the outside patio overlooking a lake, by the swimming pool. The main reason for staying in Hoi An (apart from it being a fantastic place) was to visit My Son, an ancient temple complex just outside of town. We arranged a trip which was excellent. It was the sort of place that I expect Angkor Wat to look like. Lots of crumbling temples, overgrown with detailed carvings. Hoi An really is a great place and I would recommend it to anyone coming to Vietnam.

After a few days we were on another night bus to Nha Trang, a beach resort down the coast. We decided after the rat incident to go back to cheap hotels and eventually settled for one that was $13 USD a night a room. As a beach resort it is OK, but the sea is very rough and we saw a local boy rescued and he was only a few feet out to sea, so we decided not to go for a dip. Spent a few days relaxing though before our last hectic week. Highlight was seeing Fulham's result come through against Man City. We can still stay up! Another highlight was a supermarket. Wandering around and choosing things from a shelf - it's amazing the things you miss when you travel! Lowlight - realizing that I had to go back to work and e-mailing my boss to arrange a contract for me.

Our last night bus was to Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City). It was a nice journey as there were only 10 of us so not much noise during the night. We had booked a room but as it was so early (6am) we couldn't get in the room. After breakfast we decided to see the sights. Went to Reunification Palace and also the War museum. The museum was very interesting with the main exhibition being photos taken by was photographers who also died in the conflict. Saw pictures of American soldiers with guns pointing at locals and also saw pictures of those effected by napalm and agent orange chemical bombs. Very powerful stuff.

We also arranged a trip to the Mekong Delta and our bus tickets to Cambodia. The Mekong trip was good but not exceptional, I think you need a few days to really see the area, time that we did not have. But we saw houses that backed onto the river and people moving goods up and down the river and went on a boat down small canals.

I really liked Vietnam and we saw everything that we wanted to. Would like to come back and do the north of the country some time.

So that was the end of Vietnam and we onto our final country - Cambodia.

Tina

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