Hello all. We've just returned from a fabulous weekend cruising through limestone pinnacles in Halong Bay. We slept aboard the boat with 4 Aussies and a couple from Indonesia, -all very friendly and sociable. We were spoilt with luxury seafood and the smell of Ed's flipflops! (they have to live in the bathroom these days so we can get to sleep at night). It was hard work trying to keep up with the AUssies who couldn't wait to go swimming in the deep blue sea. Ed and I tried to seem really confident and although we didn't go diving off the edge of the boat we managed to tread water until their stories of reef sharks were shared and the jelly fish spotters on board alerted us to their impending arrrival. At which stage we managed to beat them front crawl back to the boat!! (Ed did butterfly just to show off). The next day there was more competition when we were supposed to be going for a leisurely kayak exploring the surrounding islands and lagoons. Ed was only interested in staying at the front of the group as if it was the kayaking ashes (I could do nothing about this as Ed had control of the rudder). We were doing well until one of the aussies revealed he'd come 2nd in a national white water kayaking competition! Ed was then so in despair he managed to drown the digital camera so now we're relying on our new friends to email us photos. Unfortunately there'll be a short delay before you see more photo clips while we think of a better tale to claim on the insurance with and make our next purchase. I can't believe how controlled I was - my steaming mood only lasted for an hr or so!! Must have been the lunch time tiger beer(s). As revenge I've just spent half a day shopping in Hanoi. There are 4 million people in this city and 3 million mopeds -hence it's rather noisy and hectic, wish we cd have seen the place 10 yrs ago, before the pushbike was replaced. We were tempted to buy a collection of furniture for the lounge but P and M will be pleased to hear we settled for a throw away camera (as their address seems to favourite for parcel deliveries). We're off into the mountains for a few days. Hope everything's fine at home, pleased to hear a mini heatwave shd be arriving later in the wk. Love E and R P.S. Ed's gutted about Wayne Rooney