Sun 26th Nov 2006

Had what seemed like our first lie in for ages this morning - up at 8am!

After our delicious yoghurt and fruit, we said goodbye to our latest surrogate family at the hostel. We were cheated out of another 20,000 dong for taking our bags on the bus though. Kien waved us off and we were on our way back to Hanoi.

Arrived in Hanoi to find that the hostel we had been recommended was now a building site with a little sign saying to go to their second hostel around the corner - so we did.

We were given free tea and bombarded with information about trips to Halong Bay. After what seemed a lifetime of discussing Halong Bay, we realised we hadn't actually sorted out a room for the night. We were tired and hungry so the beasts in us were starting to raise their ugly heads. After much umming and aahing and scepticism about what we were being offered we had lunch at Kangaroo cafe to try and restore some brain power. As a result, we missed out on a nice room at the hotel, and ended up in a much less nice room in another hotel.

After "settling in", we went for a wander around the old city and the lake. We were approached by two men who we thought were moto drivers wanting to hassle us to give us a lift. We were abrupt as always and sent them on their way - only to realise that they were two genuine local men who were simply trying to help two lost souls in a new city. oops! We made amends by talking to two young Vietnamese girls who wanted to practice their English with us as we walked around the lake.

In the confusion of getting a rubbish room and booking our trip to Halong Bay, we also agreed to go out for the night with a girl who worked in our original hotel to go and see a phillipino band in a bar we'd never heard of. So at 9.30pm she picked us up for what can only be described as a confusing night out!

We were the only English girls (surprise, surprise) at The Saloon Bar and the staff at the bar couldn't grasp our order of gin and tonic without hennessey whisky. The Phillipino band were great, although they did not fulfill our request for Justin Timberlake (does anybody in south-east asia know who he is?). The lady from our hostel hooked up with her meathead of an ex-boyfriend who was so drunk that he spilled his drink all over her - classy! She also tried to set us up with businessmen drinking next to us at the bar - at which point we made our sharp exit home.

Mon 27th Nov 2006 - Halong Bay

Up at 6.30 am to get our bread and jam in before setting off to Halong Bay. Three hours on the bus later and we arrived at our boat that we would be on for the next 2 days. Our scepticism was proved wrong and we found ourselves on a lovely wooden boat with what looked like an English tea-room for a lounge/dining area.

On our boat with us were two Australians (Fiona and Dave), two English girls (Pam and Debbie), two German boys (Dan and Jonas) and a Scottish couple (David and Rowan). We also met a lovely Vietnamese family from America whose names we have no chance of being able to spell!

We had a beautiful lunch on board our boat as we sailed out to Halong Bay. Our first stop was to visit Hang Sung Sot caves - which contained a very attractive penis rock lit up in pink lights!

Our next stop was to climb to the top of Tip Top island for an amazing view of Halong Bay. We then sailed on for our kayaking trip which started at what can only be described as Ibiza of Halong Bay (until the music changed from dance to S-Club 7 that is!)

We almost lost Pam and Debbie who were caught up in a severe current and drifted behind an oncoming fishing boat. As we waited, it got darker and darker and we ended up using moonlight to guide the way back to our boat.

After a lovely hot shower in our plush cabins, we had another amazing meal prepared for us. After some obligatory post-dinner rice wine we then chilled out on the deck with Tiger beer and card games. We rode the bus again - this time it was a much simpler version than that in Thailand, and we got to choose how many seats our bus had. This naturally resulted in a bit of dancing on the deck before bed.

Tues 29th Nov 2006

Another delicious meal started the day for us, however the weather left a lot to be desired. It was just like an English summer day with drizzle. This meant we decided not to go swimming or jump into the sea from the top deck. Instead, we had a few hours to chill on the boat as we slowly made our way back to shore.

We had lunch on dry land before saying goodbye to everyone as we were dropped off again in Hanoi.