Well, what a busy couple of days it's been! We will try and remember best we can. Wed - well we only just made the 7.20am bus to Haiphong we didn't pay (the woman at the kiosk just shouted at us!) but we were ushered on to the bus and hoped for the best. After 3 hours on the bus during which we managed to sleep (and buy but not recieve a ticket) we arrived in Haiphong where we were transfered to another bus. Now, our LP book said that we'd get a boat from the harbour straight to Cat Ba Town, the company we went with proved to not be that easy.

The second bus now took us to a boat mooring completely out of town. Their boat then dropped us on the other side of Cat Ba island to Cat Ba Town, a 3rd bus then took us the rest of the way!! It turns out that Lonely Planet may have never actually been here as their map of the town also left alot to be desired, their recommended hotel is now an empty shell!!!

We found a lovely hostel though with views over the bay. It was much quieter here than we thought it would be, there's something of the Blackpool in winter about it! When we were in Hanoi there was LOTS of tours to choose from but we deliberately made our own way here because we wanted to see the island itself as well as the bay. When we got here though, it was so quiet we thought we might be in danger of not getting a tour at all.

We did though, and what a tour!!! We started with a bus to Cat Ba National Park (with an english speaking guide), only when we got off the bus did our guide tell us the trek would be 14km in 4 hours over 5 large hills! The walk was on paths to start with but they soon disappeared and gave way to scrambling up rocks and stone steps. It was very hard work but after 3 hours the jungle opened out into the most amazing picturesque village (Viet Hai) with paddy fields and surrounded by the mountains you can see in the pictures.

As if that wasn't special enough we were given a very nice lunch and taken to the harbour where our boat was waiting. After setting off and admiring the scenery we were told we would be stopping again so that we could go kayaking, however the boat was going back to Cat Ba and would collect us again in an hour! Despite initial nerves the scenery was so beautiful and it was so still and quiet with the sun just starting to set that we had a great time, although obviously the boat didn't get back for 1.5hrs leaving us wondering what if...! From the photos you can see all the floating houses - we're sure one of them must have been the bar from Top Gear!!

Back on the boat and again slightly unsettling as neither of the two crew spoke any English - however they did cook us the most amazing seafood dinner, served sat on the floor in the back of the boat after Greg had a shot of rice wine!! They then prepared our bed and without realising it was only 8pm (it gets really dark really quickly here!), we went to bed to be woken at 7 to more gorgeous scenery and hot sweet coffee and pancakes for breakfast!

First stop today was to get into a little reed rowing bowing boat which one the crew rowed through arches in the rocks into a lagoon type place, incredibly peaceful and still and the home of wild monkeys which incredibly, after a long wait we actually saw! Really was good. Next stop was to scramble on to another island where we were taken into a cave all weathered into amazing formations (they are made of limestone). The pictures are deceptive as it was pitch black and really hot (we climbed up quite high inside). A quick swim before lunch (unfortunately the water at the mo is as cold as in England and tourists in another boat looked at us like we were mad!) which again was deliciious. Then they put the sails up (Greg helped!) and we sailed back to Cat ba over some pretty choppy waters! A final motorbike ride brought us back to the town, exhausted, filthy but with big grins!

Although we wanted to get the train down to Hue we have found out it's totally booked due to New Year on Mon so we are booked onto a sleeper bus tonight, currently killing time until the beginning of a very very long and probably pretty uncomfortable journey! Leaving here 3pm and arriving in Hue 6am tomorrow morning!

Love to everyone, thinking of you all lots

S&G xxxxxxxxxxx