We had both been waiting for this one since we arrived in Vietnam, actually since we booked the trip.As we had to change our itinerary because of flooding in Northern Vietnam we were up at 4:45 to catch an early flight from Hue to Hanoi.The airport at Hue was small and not that busy so we got through very quickly and the flight was no problem - only about an hour.Jack had arranged a private bus for us at Hanoi airport which took us straight to Ha Long Bay which was 4 hours down the road.

We had a local tour guide called Zun (I'm sure that is spelt wrong) which means "Friday" in Vietnamese!He told us a lot of the history behind Vietnam as well as how poor the people were with the average wage only being $1,000 per annum…….this was right before he pulled out his brand new iphone 4!!Tour guides are obviously the exception to the rule and earn a bit more - either that or he spent 9 months wages on his phone!

We arrived in Ha Long bay around 1pm which was perfect timing for lunch on our junk boat.Zun explained to us that Hanoi means "the soaring dragon" and Ha Long Bay means "the coming down of the dragons" - the legend says that the dragons left Hanoi and while flying over Ha Long Bay saw the white sand and blue waters and thought it was the perfect location to settle.The islands are supposedly the mother dragon (biggest island) and her 1968 baby dragons - that's right there are 1969 islands in Ha Long Bay - it is massive!Our boat was so much better than we expected and the seafood lunch we had was awesome - fresh shrimp, crab, fish with noodles and veg!Laura had chicken and chips - she wasn't for pulling apart the fresh shrimp at all!!

We cruised for about an hour before stopping at the biggest island (mummy dragon) to go in and explore the caves which were only discovered 17 years ago by a fisherman who was sheltering from a storm!The cave complex was enormous and atmospheric with the coloured lights and music echoing throughout - see photos for an idea of what we are talking about (once again they do not do it justice)!Got back on our boat for a further 3 hours cruising through the islands and passed a floating village.Some of these people have never left the village i.e. have never been on dry land!!They are born and die here - weird to think they never go ashore!The bay is so much bigger than we thought - Zun explained some tours spend 2 weeks seeing all of it, we only had 4 hours!It was surprisingly peaceful and given it's popularity we were amazed at how few other boats there were within the islands - they must all take different routes to give guests a unique experience!Spent the remainder of our time on the boat taking photos, and taking in the view trying to believe we were actually there!

After the boat trip we checked into the hotel which was really nice.We had a large room with a big balcony overlooking the bay - well done Jack!We could happily have spent extra time here - unfortunately we only had one night.Went out for pizza and beer that night ending up sipping Hanoi Beer on the beach - not a bad way to spend a Monday night!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Hanoi to spend some time there - the last destination of our GAP Adventure!We both loved Ha Long Bay - it was everything we expected and a whole lot more and if any of you get the chance to go we would definitely recommend it although do an overnight boat trip were you sail into the bay in the evening, sleep on the boat and wake to a sunrise over the bay!

Craig and Laura =)