Day 16

Early morning we left for our 3 day Halong Bay tour (a beautiful bay in Northern Vietnam with giant limestone cliffs and islands everywhere) on a very cramped 3 1/2 hour minibus ride! Sven instantly made friends with an Aussie called Mitchell and his Chinese girlfriend Li-Li, while I sat next to a great Northern Irish couple, who told me all there travel stories on the way to Halong Bay :)
Arriving in Halong Bay we boarded our wooden sailing junk and had a yummy seafood lunch with prawns and freshly caught fish. Afterwards we sailed onto some caves which were pretty impressive and the views over the bay were amazing! In the afternoon we attempted to Kayak around part of the bay (well Sven told me to just not do anything as I kept on steering us towards the rocks, so I sat and admired the view while Sven did all the hard work ;)
Dinner again in the evening and our guide tried to convince us to join him in karaoke...alas no takers so we all sat on the deck with the boat docked, drinking beer and chatting to our new Aussie, Chinese & Northern Irish friends for the evening :) Great day in Halong Bay!

Day 17

After breakfast today we sailed onto Catba island where just myself, Sven, Mitchell & Li-Li got off as the other guys were only doing a 2 day cruise, so the 4 of us joined another very boooring older group for the last 2 days. We also got a new guide who started off being cool (but there is a story later on...)
We went to Catba national park where the rest of the group when on an hour trek up to a very rickety lookout point, we stayed at the bottom and drank some beer waiting for the group as poor me didnt have the right walking shoes, only my flip flops, oh dear what a shame...
Now the story about the guide (its a good one!) Toni our new Vietnamese guide was nowhere to be seen when the group came down from the hike, so we all waited around for about half an hour until Li-Li (chinese friend) got annoyed and went to look for him. She found the guide playing cards with his mates around the corner and called him to come as we are all waiting. The next thing he launched into one and started YELLING at poor Li Li!! So her Aussie boyfriend and of course Sven got involved and told him to stop treating a lady like that. Well Tony didnt like that so he got very upset and told us he would drop us off on the side of the road and we can end the tour (great... stranded in Vietnam) what a cheek this guy had, but oh no it gets even better.... as we arrived at our hotel the man fell to the floor in apparant agony and started crying that not one but both of his legs had cramps so one of the passengers had to help him stretch his legs (to be honest we all thought he was putting it on a bit) once he had stopped 'crying' he came into the reception and threw his sunglasses on the floor, and the bellboy picked them up only to have Toni throw a tantrum and throw them on the floor again, soooo mature Toni!
We met for lunch which was disgusting considering we were staying in a 4 star hotel.. consisted of boiled beef and beans and of course... RICE (becoming our daily staple!)

In the afternoon we took a boat trip across to Monkey Island, which was a small beach with some very feisty monkeys, very cute until they came right up to us and tried to take a chunk out of Svens back!! OMG thank goodness we have had our rabies shots! and luckily the monkey didnt get his bite from Sven, as he couldnt grip his back! It was pretty funny as Mitchell the aussie was coming back from the toilet, about 4 monkeys ganged up on him and chased him so the next thing Sven is up there barking at them (haa haa) and they ran away,apparantly thats what we do in Africa with the monkeys..Good old Sven the African boy!

Having spent the afternoon trying to dodge these cheeky monkeys the 4 of us decided to head out into town to get some decent food for dinner after our yucky hotel lunch. Sooo here is another interesting story...
We went to a local bar where we sat outside and ordered cocktails and some food. After eating our food there was some construction going on above us and bits of cement started to fall all over us and in our drinks. Li Li noticed first and complained to the waitress only for them to say that it was tough they wouldnt replace our drinks! so we asked for the bill and the next thing the waitress started to get super AGGRO! Long story cut short, she started to swear at us, and after us telling her to shutup and stop being so rude, this little Vietnames waitress wanted to hit Li-Li and Sven, her friend had to restrain her otherwise she would have come after Sven!

After our 2nd local Vietnamese encounter for the day we found another bar where we ended up spending the rest of the evening having cement free drinks and the guys played pool with the locals. Mitchell ended up beating the locals and winning their money off them.. and then it was time to get out of there, before any more local fights started! OMW what a day!!! pretty interesting but enough arguments for one day thanks!!

Day 18

This morning at breakfast the two boys were pretty hungover after all their long island iced teas, Li-Li and I were well behaved with our G&T's so we were ok! We boarded our boat again and relaxed ontop of the deck taking in the amazing views, and enjoying the sunshine, today was the best weather we had for a while so it was nice to soak up a bit of sun! we stopped at a local floating village where we got on a bamboo rowing boat and went around these beautiful grottoes where part of James Bond Tomorrow never dies was filmed. Arriving back in Halong City we squashed into our minivan for the ride back to Hanoi. Overnighted in Hanoi and tomorrow back to Thailand the land of Smiles thank goodness!!!