Ha Long bay; the big reunion. I'm not quite sure how we managed to get everyone together but we did it. Must say, I'm glad we pulled it off because that was a lot of organising to do. I had multiple Facebook and WhatsAp conversations with everyone to sort it out - go me!! Sorry, you're probably wondering who 'everyone' is. Well it's Christa from the east coast of Aus, Andy, Bryony, Tash and Char from the Thailand crew, Nelen (formally known as Helen), Hatem and Sebastian from the Sapa trip AND finally, Tom Chapman from London 2012, plus a newbie Israeli girl called Alona (our token Israeli, Tals replacement). We all had a reunion drink the night everyone arrived in Hanoi, headed to Bai Nor Corner or 'Beer Corner' as we knew it. Draught beer for 15p, only in Nam, beer is pennies. It was a lovely time to catch up and swap stories of different places we'd visited. The only thing that was missing was our dear Kate Vidal, she had already gone on her Ha Long bay trip with a special visitor from back home, Ashley Ta. Ash was on holiday In Nam so they planned to meet up and celebrate Ash's birthday together in Ha Long, as it was only the day before. I should mention that Hanoi has a midnight curfew on their bars and clubs so we were all home soon after then.

It was an early start the next day. We were getting picked up at 8am for the trip, after the rush of hungover packing and scoffing down a cold breakfast, we got on the cramped bus for the next 4 1/2 hours. There was 12 of us in our group but they still managed to squeeze on another 8 or so people into this mini mini-bus. Classic Nam. Many funny and interesting conversations later we arrived in Ha Long City (how long city), boarded the boat (which did look a little different to the photos but they always do). For those of you who don't know what Ha Long Bay is, its a group of just under 2000 protruding limestone rocks, coming out of the Tonkin sea on the coast of Vietnam. Just as I was stepping on, I asked myself 'why am I getting on another boat'. I have now developed a lifelong fear for Asian transport. We got given the keys to our bedroom, I was sharing with Nelen, double bed too. I was put on the wall side because I can't be trusted to be on the edge. It wasn't long until lunch was ready so we all gathered around the banquet table. We had the boat to ourselves in the end so that was cool to have a private tour. The 3 vegetarians were summoned to the end of the table to sit together, Hatem and Liv joined me on being veggie. There was so much food, every time we finished a plate of something from the buffet, they brought out another variety. Bloated on a moving boat, dangerous. We then went to the 'amazing surprise cave' which was half interesting, once we saw a bit of the cave, there wasn't much point in walking around the rest because it was pretty similar. Although the tour guide did enjoy showing us funny shaped rocks but I think that only amused him. On the way back to the boat, Nelen and Tom bought 2 bottles of vodka and sneaked them onto the boat for everyone to drink that evening. It had to be hidden though because you had to pay a corkage fee for bringing on your own booze, which obviously we didn't want to do. We then floated our way to Teetop point, where there was a path you could walk to the top of the limestone rock island and look out on Ha Long but we decided against the walk and dared ourselves to jump in the freezing cold sea. Oh maybe I should mention the weather, it was freezing! Cold, misty and definitely not swimming weather. We all stood there huddled in our swim gear and towels, discussing going in for around 5 minutes then we just stripped down and ran in. It felt like pins and needles all over my skin. Fair play to us though, we stayed in for a good 10 minutes, purely because we was terrified off the frost bite we would get after we got out. I treated myself to a snickers afterwards, my chocolate intake has hit a new level, it actually hurts to slouch over now because of my stomach rolls, and the sugar is making my skin break out. Hope I've painted a lovely image of myself for you. We got back on the boat, showered up and waited for dinner to be served. We were meant to go fishing beforehand but the crew thought it wasn't a good idea for us to be hanging off the side of the boat after we'd been drinking. Dinner was another success, definitely overate again!! We bought a little bottle of vodka from the crew and finished it quite quickly between the 11 of us, luckily we had the vodka we bought earlier. Now nicknamed the 'snickers' so that the crew didn't pick up on the fact that we was sneaking into our rooms to refill the empty bottle we had bought from them. We spent a big chunk of the evening playing 'ring of fire', I no longer like the number 8. It meant you have to sit on your hands until the next number 8 came out the pack of cards but obviously as soon as someone else would pick up a card you would have to drink for one reason or another so basically it meant I had to be fed my drink. Tom took this as an opportunity to ruin me and poured me a good chunk of vodka topped off by beer into my glass and I couldn't do much about it but chug it. The second part of the night was overrun by Karaoke, we all took our turns, obviously me and Andy pulled off a Disney duet. Even the tour guy was up there, belting out his favourite. He hogged the microphone, then again so did Alona, in between her naps. Later in the night, after Andy and I were told to come off the top deck and stop playing with the rubber dinghies, we all slipped off to bed. Although Andy, Nelen and I did have a three way spoon in our double bed beforehand; sorry for the Disney album being on Nelen.

We were abruptly awoken at 7am but the tour guide banging on our door, saying "wake up wake up" constantly until we shouted back. Breakfast was an overdose of eggs on toast. We steered clear of the boiled eggs, they had some dodgy thick brown skin on the outside, grim! Just as we had finished our last bite, the crew ordered us to the back of the boat for some kayaking fun. Hangover + big breakfast + kayaking; really?? Me and Liv paired up, I went in the back and naughtily let her do most of the work but I helped steer and chipped in every now and then. After kayaking we all just slumped on the sofa and chatted about last nights events or went through each others cameras for a few hours. Before we knew it, lunch was on the table. I don't think any of us was hungry yet but oh well food is food. We had Les Miserables soundtrack playing in the background, seen as it was our last meal with Andy, Bryony, Tash and Char, it would be rude not to follow tradition. Not sure the rest of the group appreciated it in the same way. The crew definitely made a big effort to make sure we had a good trip and we really did. We made our way to the shore and waited for the mini bus to take us back to Hanoi. During the journey I spotted a pig tied to the back of a motorbike, we all started to take photos then the pig blinked, he was alive!!! We couldn't work out why he was alive, or where he was being taken but it was very odd. Not sure if any of you have been to Vietnam but their roads are crazy, they overtake each other at any opportunity. Even in the smallest of spaces, it seems perfectly safe for them but not for us lot we were terrified. On the wrong side of the road, with traffic bombing towards us then with seconds to spare we'd dart into our lane, feeling like the bus could tip over at any point. Arriving in Hanoi at 5pm, we had an hour until our overnight bus to Hue, we ran around trying to find a meal to takeaway for the bus, with minutes to spare we had to say our goodbyes. Andy was the cryer last time we said goodbye on Phi Phi but this time it was me. Goodbyes are getting harder to do the longer were away from home. Especially because of the amount of time we travelled together with those guys, we love you!!