I had my first holiday here last month and decided to travel down to Hoi An and Hue. They're both important places in Vietnam (Hoi An used to be a very busy port town and Hue is the old capital) and I was told by friends who had been here that they were definitely worth a visit. I got the overnight sleeper train (which took 16 hours) because it was cheaper than a flight and it meant I would get to see a bit of the countryside on my way down.
Hoi An was great. It's a very cute little down by the sea with very well preserved old buildings, an ancient Japanese bridge and some really amazing restaurants. I spent 5 days there and just wandered around, people-watching and visiting various temples and craft shops. I had a couple of days by the pool, a day on the beach (went parasailing!) and got up early one morning (5:00am) to visit My Son (pronounced 'mee sun'), Vietnam's equivalent to Angkor Wat - but A LOT smaller. I have to say, though, that the highlight of my trip was my day of motorbiking along some of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It's very common here to use motorbikes as taxis (they're cheaper than real taxis) so I decided to get one back to my hotel one evening. The driver was called Thai and he was a member of the Easy Riders, a group of bikers who take people on tours around different places in Vietnam. When he dropped me off at my hotel, he asked if I had any plans for the next day and if I was interested in doing a tour. I jumped at the chance and we kind of decided together where we would go. I spent the whole of the next day (from 8:00am - 5:00pm) on the back of his bike whizzing through the amazing countryside and visiting little traditional villages and seeing where things like peanuts and green tea are grown. It was such a fantastic way to see Vietnam and at the end of the day I felt like I'd been away for weeks :-) I've posted some pics to give you an idea of what it was like....