It took us about four hours to travel the 175km down to Halong Bay. We were heading for the "Treasure Junk". All the boats that navigate around Halong are called "Junk's". Upon boarding our boat we both agreed that there was indeed nothing junk about it. 30m of pure luxury compared to what we where used to! Cocktails on arrival, a warm towel and a seven course lunch started us off.

The Treasure junk had only been running for about 8months so everything on board was still in good shape. The restaurant was wrapped in dark wood and tabletops were scattered with beautiful cutlery and crockery. The decks were spotless and there where 23 staff on board serving 17 of us. Our room had the best shower we had come across this far and a view which looked straight out onto the turquoise water. We also met great people on the boat. John and Lori from the states who we ended up spending some time with, Holy & Alaina also from the states who treated us to an amazing dinner back in Hanoi (thank you again), Michael and Erica from Mildura in Australia, Rod and Morag from Scotland and a few French and German couples who's names I can't remember. All in all a really nice bunch of people to share the experience with.

After a quick freshen up we were ushered onto our kayaks and were let loose amongst the magical limestone karsts which Halong is famous for. The water was a deep turquoise and the sun was out with not a cloud in sight. It made for the best kayaking we had ever done. We stopped off on a small stretch of beach and had a swim whilst admiring the breathtaking scenery. It was just amazing! We kayaked for two hours then slowly headed back to the boat. After parking the kayaks we spent the next 30 minutes flinging ourselves off the railing of the boat into the pristine water.

What followed next was, in no particular order,cocktails, seven course dinner, rice paper roll class, cocktails, more food, cocktails, squid fishing and a cheeky little night cap on the deck of the boat when all the other guests had gone to bed. We couldn't have asked for a better day, but didn't go to bed too late because we had to be up up 6am for our Thai Chi class.............hilarious!

The morning was slightly misty and made for a spectacular background for our thai chi class. The other guests slowly made their way onto the deck and then we began. I'm not entirely sure how to describe the movement which our bodies performed but Kate looked like a Ballerina which got trapped in a Bruce Lee movie and I looked, well, just ridiculous. Our instructor had grace, finesse and a kind of well trained rhythm about him but all the westerners standing behind him were falling about like toddlers. Nonetheless it was great to get some morning air and a good stretch before starting the day. After the class we freshened up and headed to a floating fishing village. We were rowed around in small bamboo boat and showed this extraordinary place. The village was equipped with a floating shop, school, rubbish collection boat, fish farm and pearl farm. Incredible.

By now we had worked up a decent appetite and the boat then delivered another seven coarse breakfast. After breakie we checked out of our room and sat on the deck chairs whilst the boat made its way back to Halong City. We cannot even express how much of a "must do" this is in Vietnam. Spend the extra money and enjoy one of the most incredible places on earth.

The transfer back to Hanoi was sobering as we made our way back into the chaos. Our train departs at 11pm which will hopefully take us down to Hue. We hung out with some Americans which we met on the boat as two of them were catching the same train as us. That night we shared our cabin with two Vietnamese folk. One of which wore one of those face masks all night and the other had his pyjamas on before the train even departed. Confirm no English between our room mates. Kate and I had the two top bunks so you can imagine how hard you have to try not to step on your roomies when doing the night time toilet run. Actually very funny to watch Kate performing the task. We arrived safely in Hue and headed off with a taxi towards "South Bank". Same same