Well hello Mr Bond........ Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun) was definetley holed up on one of these beautiful emerald islands that reach up out of the Gulf of Tonkin, close to the South China Sea. Covering an area of 15,000 sq km this is one of the jewels in the Vietnamese crown and another world heritage site for the country. The 3000 tiny islands in the bay are dotted with beaches and grottoes carved by the wind and the sea and have sparsley forested slopes that hide the craggy lavender coloured rocks beneath. The literal translation of the name means "where the dragon descends into the sea". Legend has it that the islands of Ha Long were created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains. As it ran towards the coast its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevices as it plunged into the sea and as it descended below the waves the sea engulfed the crevices leaving only the high land visible. The dragon may be legend but many of the sailors in the Bay have often reported sightings of a mysterious marine creature of gargantuan proportions, known as the Tarasque. The more paranoid elements of the military (everybody!) believe it to be an imperialist spy submarine whilst eccentric travellers believe they have found Vietnams answer to the Loch Ness Monster! No sightings were made on this trip. To take in the beauty of the bay we booked ourselves on a boat trip, which in design resembled a Chinese Junk boat. With a truly international group aboard (Aus', Kiwi, Belgian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Korean and us Brits) we set sail on the afternoon tide for the Bay and a spot of lunch. Whilst cruising in the Bay is a wonderfully relaxing pastime we decided to hike up to one of the many caves that are littered across the islands. Hang Sung Sot was the most enormous cave that we have ever seen, with 3 large chambers carved into the side of the rock. Each had been beautifully lit for maximum impact and a great deal of effort had been made to link the history of the country with carvings in the rock. Various animals have strong symbolism within Vietnamese Buddhism so many had tried to create images of dragons, tigers and tortoises out of the many shapes we could see - we have to say that our imaginations just weren't that good! However, the penis rock (yes we did say penis) was beautifullly swathed in a red light to emphasise the point (pardon the pun) and is highly regarded as a fertility symbol. Later on that day Chris got the activites going on the boat with a kayaking competition between the different countries. With Carol in charge of the camera and no other Brits available, Chris made his team-mate, Rob (an Aussie) an honourary Englishman for the afternoon. It goes without saying that they won the race for Queen and Country - much to Chris's satisfaction. We had been up so early that morning, with another early arrival on the overnight train back to Hanoi from Sa Pa, that we barely lasted past 9pm - and a good thing too as our Vietnamese tour guide was an avid karaoke fan and was threatening us with a whole rendition of the Carpenters! The next morning, most of the boat jumped in the sea and spent time swimming in the bay. However, Ha Long Bay soon turned into Ha Long Bay-Watch when one of the Koreans (who couldn't swim very well) was swept away from the boat by the current and was drifting far away. He was unable to get back to the boat, so Chris put his new found David Hasselhof Rescue Diving skills that we learned in Thailand to full use. Armed with a lifejacket for the victim, Chris was in the water and came to his aid, towing him back to the boat. He was just disappointed that he couldn't use his CPR skills on him as well! We are now back in Hanoi for a little recuperation back in the air conditioning before heading to Nanning in southern China tomorrow on another overnight sleeper train.