From Hanoi we took a boat trip around Halong Bay, had lunch on the boat and then sunned ourselves on the top deck, admiring the other boats in the bay and the fantastic scenery of limestone karsts rising up from the water. We stopped at some caves to explore inside - a path has been cut through for tourists and the stalactites and stalagmites were dramatically illuminated with coloured lights.

We stayed overnight on Cat Ba Island, a very chilled out place where the main street beside the harbour was lined with Christmassy light decorations and, at night, the cars and motorbikes disappeared so tourists (predominantly Vietnamese tourists) can stroll along, play games and browse the markets for jewellery and souvenirs. All the buildings looked very new.

We spent a morning kayaking round the other islands close to Cat Ba, about 6km in total, it was hard work! The views were fabuolous, plus I saw a few huge jellyfish, a shoal of little jumping fish that leapt along the surface of the water, a heron and some fish eagles. We stopped on a deserted island for a while to rest, go swimming and check out the shells along the shore. Later we squeezed through a small hole in the rocks to enter a secluded lagoon - it was so peaceful and picturesque and our voices echoed around the karsts that encircled the lagoon. On the way back, a couple of the girls inadvertently knocked into a fish farm in a floating village and had to frantically back-paddle when they were chased by the guard dogs!