Well we thought the last sleeper bus was bad! From Nha trang to hoi an was much worse! The bus was over crowded with locals sharing beds and sleeping in the isles of the bus. We stopped every 5 minutes for the first couple of hours to pick more people up not that we had the room and huge boxes and parcels. We saw one local pay nearly 3 x the price we paid for the bus so he could move from the floor to a bed. There were people continuing to swap beds for most of the trip. We asked several times to stop for the toilet but he wouldn't. One stage the bus stopped so I jumped off to pee behind bus only to get yelled out by the staff. The local people were allowed off but not the tourists. The staff were really rude and grumpy. Won't be using that company again. However when we arrived in hoi an around 8am the amount of Vietnamese trying to hassle us wasn't as bad. We found a place to stay for $12 a night just outside the old quarter area. The ladies running the show were lovely so we settled there for the 3 nights. The weather was very average for our time in hoi an. It rained most of the time but we still managed to do everything we wanted. Hoi an is known for its tailors and lanterns. The amount of tailor shops was incredible. The streets of the old quarter were cobblestone with amazing old buildings with shutters over the windows. Most of the buildings were yellow/orange coloured. There is height restrictions in the quarter making it look exactly how it used to back in the olden days. We enjoyed wondering around the old quarter looking at all the buildings and drinking lots of ca phe Sua da :) We did a Vietnamese cooking class one day which was really fun. We got a guided tour through the Hoi An central market which was really interesting. The guide informed us about the large variety of fruit and vegetables and how to pick the freshest seafood and meat. We took a boat down the river to the Red Bridge Cooking School which is where we did the cooking. We had a chef which demonstrated recipes to us and then we each had our own cooker to replicate the dishes. We got to eat all the food we made at the end for lunch. We made fresh rice paper, rice paper rolls with prawn and pork, Vietnamese pancake and eggplant clay pot. We were shown how to make seafood salad served in half a pineapple which we got to eat. Delicious. Our other day we hired a bike for the day and rode around the old quarter and out to the beach. Unfortunately it rained for most of the day so we got pretty wet! Was quite confusing at first as we were riding on the right hand side of the road instead if the left. We really enjoyed Hoi an and is somewhere we would both like to visit again. Potentially get some clothes and shoes made next time. We got a morning train from Hoi An to Hue which took around 3hours. We were told it was well worth the trip for the scenery which was nice but hard to top New Zealand's!! It was definitely an experience with locals smelling terrible, roasters in boxes crowing every few minutes and men bringing dried fish on he had bought from a local hawker. Pretty smelly. Once we arrived we made our way to the lonely planets top pick hotel and managed to sell a deal for $12 a night with no breakfast. We headed to the Dong Ba markets across the river. They are huge but selling all the same kinds of crap like most markets we have been too. We had dinner with the locals on their tiny children's plastic stools and enjoyed their road side cooked meals. The next morning we got picked up at6am to start our DMZ tour which was a full day tour taking us out to Khe Sanh Combat Base and vinh moc tunnels as well as other historical sites along the way. Very interesting but a long day. Our next day we slept in until lunchtime which is most unlike us and made out way to the imperial city in hue. We are getting another sleeper bus to Hanoi which takes around 12-13 hours tomorrow night (wednesday). More updates from Hanoi. Hope everyone good in nz :)