We caught the Reunification Express from Hanoi at 10pm on Saturday night. After loading up with a few Saigon beers, Julie, Lee, Stephen and I made ourselves at home in our 6” x 6” cabin. I picked a bottom bunk, warning the others that if I was on the top bunk and it collapsed in the night it probably wasn’t a good idea.

There were very few luxuries, as expected - I passed on the squat toilet (if you misread that you have a dirty mind!) - but there was air conditioning. Perfect for sleeping, as it’s pretty humid. Except ours was set to “Arctic” mode and froze the guys on the top bunk half way to hypothermia. We asked the train staff to turn it down a couple of times but think they just waved their arm in a cupboard to show willing, I don’t think it was a sophisticated system as nothing much happened. It was a long journey but a huge amount of fun - we laughed a lot, and although there wasn’t much sleep to be had the rhythm of the train was quite soporific.

We survived the trip and arrived in Hue at 10.45am - a much calmer city than Hanoi. After checking in at the hotel, we headed out for a walking tour of the Citadel, which had been bombed during the war. From the citadel we headed to the perfume river, for a boat trip up to the pink pagoda (Thiên Mu). They had a car on display that Thích Quảng Đức, a Buddhist monk, drove to Saigon in 1963 before sitting at a busy intersection and setting himself on fire in protest against the persecution of Buddhists at the time. A harrowing story.

Simple things...a happy kid who lived on the boat we took to the perfume river

Then straight into ‘down town’ for dinner. They shut off some of the streets to traffic in the evenings at the weekends, which makes for a party atmosphere - families and teenagers were out celebrating Halloween, enjoying their spare time. The food was sensational - a local Hue specialty of rice flour, shrimp and pork cooked in banana leaves, followed by fresh spring rolls (not deep fried) and chicken banh mi.

An early start in heavy rain on Monday, heading to Hoi An. Luckily the rain didn’t stay and I managed to get a bit sunburnt - impressed it’s taken this long to be honest!

We had a walking tour of Hoi An old town, with its beautiful lanterns, historic buildings, markets and shops. It is so clean, friendly and relaxed you could imagine spending a lot of time there. On the recommendation from someone else in the group, I visited one of the local tailors and got measured up for a suit and two casual shirts. £100 all in and made to measure in 24 hours...fingers crossed!

Then we had a really chilled out evening wandering the streets of the old town, and had dinner on the street watching people milling about, enjoying a few beers.

We leave at 6am tomorrow to catch a plane to Ho Chi Minh city - back to the hustle and bustle!