So our bus finally arrived at 9am and we climbed on the typically arrangedvietnam bus - overloaded and bags for africa as the boots are so small, squished in like Sardines we began our 3 hour bus ride with a quick 20minute stop on the way. Again in usual annoying Vietnamese style we waited without an idea for what were waiting for at the dock in Halong to board our boat for 2hours. This was our most annoying wait by far (it meant that we arrived in Cat Ba island when it was dark so saw nothing - d*** !!!) However one aboard and our promise of food was delivered we relaxed in and devoured a scrumptious whole fish in which Abbey and her new pal made sure there was nothing but bones left on it after 30minutes of picking!!!

Views reminded us much of Milford and Malborough sounds (see pictures) but a bit different. We stoppped to see the Amazing Caves (see pictures), which were amazing, apparently a dude discovered them and lived there for 3 years, charging visitors, he then handed it over to the government so they could make some moolah and in return he gets put up in a Mansion in Ha Noi, surely he still gets to dip his hand in tho. Apparently in Jan of 2010 they had 178,000 tourists visit Halong bay and all go through the caves so fair to say business is booming.

Booze was rediculously expensive on the boat and they even charged you 10us dollars to BYO your own vodka, this was one of the reasons we opted to stay on the island rather than boat. This proved to be a good choice when 2 occupants of the boat hoped off to buy 10,000Dong beers and then planned to pay the 10,000Dong surcharge making beers 5,000 Dong cheaper by not buying them on the boat, however the lady didnt realise ripped them from their hands on the boat and threw them at rocket speed onto the wharf, this resulted in a large debarkle over money and all sorts Grace snapped up a great video of half it and will try to up load.

Bused to our accom and had our dinner (all included in the ticket approx $27USD also bus return to hanoi, 2 lunches and boat trip) played a few drinking games and got showered up to head to town to party!! Well a party was hard to find, as we believe people came here to relax, so we were thankful when we bumped into (okay ran down the street to a sillohette of a man we recognised and gave huge hugs as we realised we were right - Chris from Aussie who we met in Hue!) We got 3 people each on a scooter - drivers incl., and headed towards the beach - deserted bar which looked cool but empty so we headed back to the town centre - tickling our drivers nearly into an accident on the way - you would too if you could enjoy him laughing like a lil girl!

We paid down the bottom after a bit of negotiations, and then abbey got to drive the scooter about 50meters for free, after which she mischivously stole the dudes keys (he was dodgy and a bit too feely touchy so deserved this), we attempted to throw them to each other and play piggy in the middle with him but flet bad so gave em back!

Chris led us down the road to a place we could get fresh beer for $5000 Dong - not quite the cheapest yet but cheap all the same! We yarned with locals got and gave free scooter rides and ate some very dodgy pho - noodles a vietnam specialty. Later we trapsed back to Chris' swanky digs for spicy pringles and dalat red wine before finally crashing at our pad at 3am.

Semi hung over we packed up free breakfasted it and onto a bus to take us to our boat and head back to Halong. Fair to say oit was a quick trip and wished we had done 2 nights 3 days so we could have stayed on island one night and boat another - tip for you other lot!!

Our sleeper bus was a god send but a mission to get to plus assigned seats but we couldn't complain as it was about to be a 24hour bus journey with hitches along the way.

Note - sleeper buses are a must when travelling from Hanoi to Laos, they only go tues, thurs and sunday and can only get to Vientiene, then you make otehr arrangements for travel in Laos. Buses are cheapest but if you have money and want to save time - FLY!!!!!