Before we arrived into Hoi An, the suit tailoring capital of the world we had a day and an evening in Hue, which sits on the bank of the Perfume river. The night train from Hanoi wasn't the cleanest and we were all in need of a good shower and wash. After freshening up we arranged a motorcycle tour of the city, which meant hanging on the back of a motorbike whilst a driver whizzed us around various historical sites and around the scenic countryside.

The most interesting site in Hue is the Imperial Citadel, which was once the royal residence of the kings in Vietnam. Built in 1804 a lot of it has been damaged in various wars, particularly during the US conflict. Parts of the site, which covers around a 2.5km squared area, is still land mined and cordoned off. Whilst all the land mines on the surface have been removed, some still lay deeper, five had been discovered in the past week.We took a wide berth of those areas, identified by a flimsy piece of rope (wandering around the city in the evening we were amazed to see that you could actually purchase difused land mines from street vendors). The outside walls and a couple of main buildings of the Citadel still stand and our quirky guide, who kept rolling out English cliches and jokes, gave us the low down.

After this we sped through the rice fields in the countryside before returning to the city to visit a famous lady who makes conical hats, the round dome shaped hats made from bamboo wood and leaves. A veteran of 32 years in the trade the fascinating thing about this lady is that she manages this with just one hand, we made a purchase and headed to another temple, which was followed by a trip to the famous Perfume Pagoda with its seven storeys. It reminded me of many that I saw in China. Compared with Laos and Thailand there is a very strong and historical Chinese influence, whether in the writing, the architecture, food and politics.

We arrived into Hoi An the next day under ashen skies and short blasts of torrential rain, which continued on and off for the three days we stayed with the occasional blast of hard sun. Hoi An is much more relaxed than anywhere we have been in Vietnam and reminded me of Laos, Luang Prabang perhaps. The place has hundreds of tailor shops for suits, jackets, jeans, dresses, bags and if I was a girl, I could go on as I am not I shall not. Anyway, the quality is superb and the prices very reasonable.You can pick up a cashmere wool made to measure suit (made inside 24 hours) for between $100 and $400 USD, depending on the colour, pattern and cut. I bought three from a shop called Mr Xe, which was the name of the camp, perfectionist gent that runs it. All his staff were super nice and I had to go back three different times for tiny alterations, many of which I couldn't pick up but good old Mr Xe did, either that or he liked wrapping his measuring tape around my waist and such areas. Julie was loving it too and picked up a few lovely made to measure blouses.

As we had three days me and all the boys in our group hired motorbikes for a day for the equivalent of 4 pounds, which included the petrol and headed off to explore the area. Within the first hour one guy had knocked over a cyclist at an intersection (no-one was hurt) and dropped his bike by accidentally grabbing the throttle as he was jumping off as we pulled u[, another guy had a blow out and another of the guys wobbled so much that no-one wanted to ride anywhere within 50 metres of him. It was bloody great fun. My speedo was broke but I was told I took over the group at one point when they were all doing 95 kph, I shot past. The bikes didn't look like much but they went when you rattled through the gears. On our trip we took in Marble mountain, which was kind of like those giant limestone monoliths in Halong Bay that jut out of the water, but this was on land and surprise, surprise is of marble persuasion. It hides an amazing bunch of things in it, lots of caves, pagodas, shops and numerous buildings. It was cool place and at its base is lots of shops selling everything marble from small ornaments to giant water features to jewelry to huge Buddhas.

Near to Hoi An is (on me 'ed) My Son, pronounced Mee Sun, which Julie and I, plus another of our group visited very early one morning in yet more torrential rain. It is similar to Angkor Wat and was the capital and spiritual centre for the Cham people who originated in the first and second century, unfortunately the US forces (again) during the war believed that My Son was a field headquarters for the Viet Cong, which is heavily disputed, and bombed ten bells out of it, destroying most of it. You can clearly see the bomb craters all around. It was certainly worth the visit though, parts of 25 of the original 70 buildings still exist made of brick not too dissimilar to what we use today, only with no mortar.

The food in Hoi An is excellent and again very cheap, the street restaurants offer particularly tasty local food, usually with teenage boy waiters who love to sit and chat football. Julie loved it so much she enrolled in a cooking school for an afternoon to get some tips and cook her own delicious meal. The bar scene was great too, 'Before and After' was great and we spent a few nights in there making use of their 2 for 1 Happy Hour, which lasted three hours, so it had to be done.

Today we head to Saigon on a very short internal flight.