After meeting up and getting smashed with a bunch of lads in Hanoi we decided that a trip to Ha Long Bay would be a great idea. Ha long Bay is a UNESCO world Heritage site consisting of loads of small uninhabited islands. The guys I met up with consisted of one english bloke, some Kiwis and some Aussies and the previous two nights we got very, very drunk. Will tell you about that in my Hanoi blog.

We drove to Ha Long City on Sunday (25th Nov) which is basicly a tourist resort and umped onto our boat. The boat was a traditional shaped vessel on 3 levels. The cabins, eating area and the sun deck. We spent most of the time on the sun deck drinking away for near 12hrs and of course colouring my English skin. There were 18 of us on the boat and we all joined together to drink and play games and generally great fun.

The scenery was simply amazing with island after island as amazing as the next. We jumped off to look at a cave which has had its character taken away by them trying to interest the tourists as much as possible and even claimed a water fountain they had stuck in was natural! Gullable Americans!

We then drank more and admired our surroundings as we sailed around.

Next day we went Kayaking at 6am! we were still drinking at 11pm the previous night and were very tired but seeing the landforms from sea level put the grandure of them to scale and sailing between fishing boats was great.

We then stopped at Catba Island and went trekking up some mountain. The rurality of the island was amazingly beautiful and as I walked through banana groves I realised this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. The groves then made way for dense forest and the walk to steeper and rockier and was a real challenge but the view from the top was breathtaking and even better on top of some tower which did not feel safe.

After the trek we drove to another (empty) beach resort and went to the beach to take in more sun, swim and mess around on the beach. This followed after dinner with more drinks at a bar and a couple of games of circle of death.

Today I woke up smashed off my face and gasping for a drink (of water). We then jumped on our boat and made our way back. This has to have been one of the best trips ever for so many reasons and the bits I can remember I will never forget.

Next Hue!