Week 6: Vietnam (Halong Bay) Day 5

Waking up on the boat was incredible. We had both had such a good sleep and it was so peaceful. We were up at 7 ready for breakfast, which certainly didn't disappoint. Yet again they provided us with a feast with toast, eggs and lots of fruit. We then had to pack away our stuff and headed out on the small boat to the pearl farm.

We absolutely loved the pearl farm, it was so interesting! We had a guided tour round the farm and watched the whole procedure from its surgical start to the final product of a shiny pearl. They prepared the oysters to grow pearls with surgical tools, adding a coral bead that then went on to hopefully from the core of the pearl. Overall it took about 3 years to make a pearl and they still only had about a 10% chance of it being successful. At the end we got to see the man opening the oysters to find out the moment of truth whether they had been successful or not in making a pearl. We were lucky as the oysters we opened did make a pearl although some were imperfect with small marks.

We then got back on the big boat and checked out of our room. Some of the people on our tour were doing a longer trip so they got off and joined another boat. The journey back to the dock took about 2 hours so we relaxed on the top deck in the sunshine, taking in the breathtaking views for the last time. We sat reading our books and talking to the others about the rest of our travels etc. About half an hour before we got off the boat one of the girls noticed a giant rainbow like ring around the sun, forming a perfect halo. We were all so amazed and no one could work out what it was. The Thai crew were even excited about it when we showed them as they had never seen it before. When we got back we googled it as we were so intrigued by it, it is often known as a sun dog. It is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky often on a luminous ring or halo on the sun.

Once back on the mainland we had an awful bus journey back to Hanoi. It was possibly the worst bus journey we have ever been on. The driver was speeding so fast over the bumps our bums were lifting off our seats. It wasn't exactly the shorted journey either, it was around 3 hours. By the end we had enough and Gemma got up and shouted at the driver to slow down which was rather entertaining.

We were both craving western food and the night before we had spotted a busy burger place on one of the main streets so we went there for dinner and sat on the street in the busy atmosphere. There were some really cute puppies which were really entertaining, obviously Gemma loved them! We then headed back to our hostel to get an early night!