Due to the late night Xmas day started late with packing and getting ready for a sleeper train that night. We got on board around 11 pm and went immediately to bed.
Up early to the train noise and off in Hue at 11am.Went to see the Forbidden City which was destroyed by the various wars but still interesting.
Very much a french influence in all the buildings and character in Vietnam which is quite pleasant.

The following day we went for a cruise or trip up river to see Pagodas and temples. Very ornate and ineresting to see that the last one was created in 1930.
Sampans were dredging the river by hand and transporting sand back down to local discharge points on the river banks - would guess they were carrying 10 tonnes each and traveling low down in the water.

Back to Hue in a bus to catch a bus the following day to HueAn.
Around a five hour trip travelling through a horrific bendy road and pass to an area where Americams used to use for R &R. Then marble Mountain to see and area of underground temples and Buddhas. It was an area of natural as well as man made beauty and we spent some time there.
Hue An is a small town based on making clothes for tourists. Some 300 tailors work in the town making made to measure clothes inside a day. Food was also super and meals were an occasion.
Went to the fish market at 5 30 am the next day and what chaos. I tried to walk through it and nearly got knocked to bits with women selling and carrying fish baskets.
Back for breakfast and then a bicycle ride for a dip in the South China Sea.
Rest on days were spent relaxing , playing pool and eating.
Left the next day on a seated train to Na Trang. Nightmare journey and while it was good to see some countryside the journey was long just to end up in a hotel for a night. We has supper in the Sailing club and then transferred on a bus the following morning to Whale Island.
Bus took about 2 hours followed by a 15 min boat trip tp Whale Island. Small island off shore and only about accomodation for 40 people. Nothing to do but eat, relax, swim etc for a couple of days.
As it was New Years Eve there was a party organised . Sea food meal and champagne after. It was quite a night with New Year being celebrated from Western Samoa to OZ to late in the night. Singsongs were the order of the day with a few good singers there to people like me.
Rest of time on Whale Island was spent relaxing, walking or snorkelling. Diving was cancelled due to rough weather and swells.

Then it was time to leave for a train to Saigon. Went for a tour of the the underground tunnels used by the Vietcong during the war which was amazing plus shooting an AK 47. Ears were ringing for hours.
The following two days we went to homestays on the Mekong Delta. Massive river with a fascinating opportunities for locals and how they make pottery and items now sold in UK everywhere.
Back to Saigon and left there on flight for New Zealand via Signapore.