Hoi An is a UNESCO listed city. It was a major trading port many years ago and developed because of the mix of people from all over the world coming to make money. The old city has changed little with small homes, merchants houses and businesses all setting up a stone's throw from the port area. Nowadays the ships dock at the deep water port at Da Nang about 30km from Hoi An, which was where we arrived by train in order to get to the historic city. We had tw...

The distance by train between Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and Hanoi is just short of 1,100 miles and you can travel between the two cities in around 34 hours on one of five direct daily trains running on the 'Reunification Express' route. Our trip from south to north sees us stopping at Mui Ne, Quy Nhon, Hoi An, Hue, Dong Hoi and Ninh Binh before eventually arriving at Hanoi just before Christmas. Making these stops allows for us to catch 'day trains' travelling in s...

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), or Saigon as it was until 1976, is the second largest city in Vietnam and nearly every one of the over nine million citizens seem to be on the move twenty four hours a day. Most of them seem to be on a motorcycle and all of them are driving wheel to wheel, handlebar to handlebar and where the road is a little too busy then they will make use of a pavement to gain a slight advantage. Watching the people move about, crisscrossing, cutting t...