What a hoo ha deciding which Halong Bay and Sapa trips to go on. Every second place is trying to sell you day trips all at varying prices. After 1 1/2 days deliberation we decided to go with the Hanoi Backpackers for both excursions. There were 32 people in total on the Halong Bay trip and whilst all the activities occurred on just the one boat we were split between 2 for sleeping. The boats look a little like story book pirate ships and are referred to as junks. We opted for this trip as we felt that the odds for getting a good mix of people were greatly increased and I think it paid off in the long run. Halong Bay departure point is 3 hours out of Hanoi which we spent talking, almost non stop, to a couple called Alan and Caroline from Solihul. Arriving at the harbour was a joke - if you come to Halong Bay thinking you are going to have a unique and special experience think again! The car park is choked with both buses and people looking completely lost and confused.The situation on the water is even more incredulous - there are boats (junks) as far as the eye can see. The turn around on these trips is continual so as one party gets off a bus and boards a boat the other is getting off the boat and back on the bus.

Halong Bay is an UNESCO world heritage site and is sold as 3,000+ amazing islands - the problem is that when the weather is pants they just look like a load of grey rocks - really unspectacular. In the afternoon we all took to the sea in Kayaks with the typical group of lads who thought it would be fun to capsize each other until one of them lost his oar - then somehow it didn't seem quite as funny! We kayaked for about an hour but it was really cold by the time we'd finished and the mid sea re-embarkation was not helped by the floating shop women obstructing us - I'll come back to them in a minute. When we boarded the boat again all the sane people went and put dry clothes on and wrapped up warm - all the others, David included, threw themselves off the top deck of the boat into the sea below.

The evening on the boat did have a really nice party atmosphere, the food throughout the whole trip was amazing and there were loads of interesting people to chat to. In fact I think one of the highlights of the trip for D was bumping into a guy called Phil who happens to be the brother of a land acquaintance of D's back home in Leeds.

Dotted around Halong Bay you find little floating villages on which whole families of all ages (plus pet dogs) live. I assume the men are fisherman but the women are all floating shopkeepers and whatever the time of day you can't help but hear the unmissable sound of 'Excusey me, Excusey me, you want...' biscuits, beer, cigarettes, sweets etc... For example I woke at 6.30am opened our cabin door only to be faced by a women right in front of me in the sea shouting did I want some water. I just shut the door and went back to bed - my solitary, quiet, early morning view of the islands had been shattered.

The next day the weather just got worse and worse - at first we all tried to brave it on deck but one by one we were defeated and reatreated back inside to the warmth of the cabin - they even put a DVD on for us so I've now seen the film 'The Wrestler' with Mickey Rourke. I must have lived a sheltered life because I had no idea such extreme wrestling existed!