We spent 2days and 1 night in Halong Bay. We took an early bus from Hanoi and reached our boat on Halong Bay just in time for lunch. It was very busy and a lot of people appeared to be taking the boat trips. Everyone piled on our boat and we were given lunch. After a short ride on the boat we were taken to some caves. They really were fascinating. We have seen quite a few caves on this trip but these ones were huge. The rock formations were really unusual and they had all different coloured lights inside illuminating the place. It was really pretty.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on our boat. We sat up on the top deck and enjoyed the view. It was really beautiful. There were lots of tiny islands everywhere and the water was really blue. We sat up on deck until it got to cold to bear then came back down in time for dinner. We were starving by this time. Initially it appeared that we were on a boat filled with victor meldrews but we did manage to befriend a nice Australian family. We spent the evening drinking and playing Uno and Yahtzee. I won Yahtzee, yeh!

When it got to midnight it was the begining of the Chinese New Year. All our crew went crazy! Fireworks and flares were going off from all the boats. It was amazing. The music was put on and all or crew were up dancing. They poured a lethal concoction of vodka to very very little fanta and offered it round to everyone. Seriously, I could feel it burning as it went down, bleugh! Anyway it was all good fun and we spent a bit of time enjoying the party and stealing the pringles. When we eventually went to bed we couldn't sleep as were right below deck and all we could here was musc and shouting and it really sounded like the ceiling was going to come in. I feel sorry for the people who went to bed at 10. Anyway it didn't last long as the electricity went out forcing everyone to bed.

It was an early start the following day. 7.30 for breakfast. I didn't expect any of the crew would be fit for making it but surprisingly it appeared right on time. We motored on back to dry land to get the bus back to Hanoi. I really enjoyed the boat trip on Halong Bay. We saw some really beautiful scenery and met some nice people too. It really was a unique way to bring in the Chinese New Year. Also... a rat ran out in front of me and lauren and as it is turning the year of the rat that is supposedly really lucky!