HalongBay -Thursday 22nd

We were picked up by the tour guide and started the three-hour bus trip to HalongBay.Unfortunately, on the way we were playing with the camera to try and enhance the colour of our pics and managed to wipe off three days worth of photo's in Hanoi! To say that we felt sick is an understatement. The little Vietnamese boy sitting in front of us was quite cute and cheeky and went some way in helping to ease the pain.When we arrived at the dock there must have been about 200 people standing around waiting to board their boats.We handed our passports to the tour guide, who didn't shine with confidence and hoped that we would get the right ones back.We boarded the junk, called 'Imperial', which is a spacious dark wood boat with a sun deck, a dining deck and the cabins on the lowest deck.Keys were being handed out for the rooms to everyone expect us. Suz hadn't realised that the guide had whispered to Stephen that we have a 'special' room and we can't tell anyone and mustn't open the door when anyone is around, and God forbid, we tell them we paid the same price for the tour! The cabin wasn't particularly big, but was fine and comfortable.Of course, we had to pay extra for air conditioning, which was a must.The bay is teeming with similar boats heading out towards the islands and it is a stunning sight.There are approximately 3000 limestone islands covered with trees and shrubs, many being huge rocks rising 100 metres out of the sea. Lunch was served and we joined a Swedish and a Polish couple and shared travelling stories while we watched the beautiful scenery. We stopped at a fish farm, which is floating timber structure in the middle of the water.Old drums and buoys hold up the structure, containing fishing nets with some narrow wooden walkways between. (Later we saw whole floating villages built in this manner). There were nets full of shrimps, crabs and other fish that we have no idea of the names of.There are also a couple of very basic huts where the families live.We then went on to some huge caves on one of the islands that had some huge stalactites and stalagmites formations.The tour guide told us to use our imagination to see frogs, dragons and turtles dotted about - our imagination is obviously not as good as his.We then sunbathed on the deck and enjoyed the tranquillity and relatively clean air. Being given the (hush hush) 'special' room, we thought we might get invited to the captain's table for dinner, but we had to rough it with the peasants. (In any case, we don't think we have a captain, never mind his table)Dinner was not dissimilar to lunch, but the food is OK.

Friday 23rd

In the morning we went past the pearl farms, but as they have pearls to sell on the boat we didn't stop off to take a closer look.We then changed to a smaller boat to continue on to one of only two inhabited islands in the whole of HalongBay.There we were guide on a bike ride to one of the villages. As we set off we were surrounded by moped riders asking if we wanted to rent a motorbike.This is as they watch us set off on our push bikes.They deserve 10 out of 10 for effort, but perhaps the effort should have been made before we got on the bikes! The ride took us through some wooded areas and then on to a village where we stopped for a drink.There were oxen in the fields next to us and rice being dried out on the open porch in front of the little houses.The tour guide was telling us about how people used to hide in the forests here while the bombs from the American War (as they call it) fell around them. An older Vietnamese lady on the trip was telling him stories of when she was a student in the late 1960s and he translated that she had to hide out in the fields here and prayed for her safety.We were also handed a jar with some snakes in it.We had read before about snake wine, which is basically a big jar of murky wine with a dead snake or three coiled around at the bottom, plus other floating bits.On closer inspection, the snakes were decaying and there were also a couple of dead birds and a lizard in there too.We politely declined the offer to try some. It was an enjoyable ride and great to see some real life for these people who live so basically.We then cruised to another island for lunch - same squid with vegetables, chicken with vegetables and spring rolls.We were able to kayak here, so we took the boat out closer to some of the islands and small beaches.As he did all the hard work, Stephen had a doze on the hammock for a while before we were back on the boat for our next stop at MonkeyIsland.Here we were given a very precarious plank to walk along to get off the boat, but luckily 'Calamity Suz Jane' made it without ending up in the drink.We saw the monkeys and then climbed up the rocks to a viewing point.Platform flip flops were not really the best footwear, as the rocks were really uneven and didn't feel too secure, so we made do with the views from hal- way.Our final destination was Cat ba Island, where we spent the night in a hotel.We had dinner with our travelling chums and the rice vodka turned up full to the brim in a wine glass and a can of tonic on the side.We think the vodka was watered down, as it really didn't taste as strong as expected or is it something to do with our taste buds being intolerant to the taste of alcohol now!

Saturday 24th

We left behind the turquoise waters and beautiful islands and spent the day on planes, boats and automobiles for our trip to Hoi An, a one hour flight south of Hanoi.