Day 10

We have been waiting ages to do what we have done today... We had a tour to Halong Bay, 2 nights, 3 days.

Tonight we are sleeping on a boat in Halong Bay, the boat is really nice and the room is lovely. We started the trip with a 3 hour bus journey from our Hotel in Hanoi to Halong City where we met the rest of our group and got onto the boat. Our first stop was to see some of the caves around Halong Bay. Halong has 1960 different islands and around 1700 people live in and around the islands in floating houses, it wasnt until about 2005 that the government invested some money into Halong and their first school was built so before this date none of the children who grew up there had any schooling.

After visiting the caves we were given the opportunity to kayak around some of islands coves. Later on we got back onto our boat for dinner, we had lots of fresh fish, shrimps, squid, and lots of other tasty food. All of our food was included on the 3 day trip, we only had to pay for our drinks. The drink prices on the boat were fairly reasonablble however in the evening some of the locals fill up their fishing boats with alcohol, cigarettes and snacks and pull up to the larger boats in the bay. We were buying 3 large bottles of beer for 50,000 Dong which is less than £2:) Looking forward to sleeping in our cabin tonight, we may try and get up to watch the sunrise. Our boat is anchored in the middle of Halong Bay, its so beuautiful even at night so the sunrise should be amazing.

Day 11

Didnt quite catch the sunrise this morning ;) Although you couldnt wish for a nicer view to wake up to. After breakfast we headed to 'Cat Ba island' where we trekked up a mountain in the National Park. Many years ago in the war between Vietnnam and Mongolia, all the Vietnamese men were sent to fight leaving the island with only Women, it was at that point that Cat Ba got its name... 'Cat' meaning many and 'Ba' meaning Women so 'Many Women Island'! The trek was really good, our guide up the mountain was called 'Monkey', which soon became apparent why when he started swinging from the trees:) He didn't speak a word of English, although he still managed to make the trek really fun and interesting. The climb was very steep, but once we got to the top it was well worth it, the views were incerdible. After heading back down we took a coach into to 'Cat Ba Town' where we checked into our hotel for the night. We were going to spend the afternoon on the beach but as it was a bit overcast we decided to rent a moped for the afternoon and explore a bit of the island. It was great zipping around the island, and cost next to nothing. We got to see more of the islands coastline, the floating village and also a little fishing village where we saw rows and rows of fish being dried out.. You can imagine how it smelt! We ended the day with a night out with everyone from the boat and tried the local 'rice wine' which dooesnt have much of a taste but certianly warms you up inside!

Day 12

Had to say goodbye to Cat Ba and Halong today.. We've had a great trip and taken soo many photos, i think weve taken over 200 in the last 2 days. Just before we left, we got onto a fishing boat and took a look around some of the caves which led to small lagoons. They were so peachful and still, a haven away from the bay. You can only access them by small fishing boats as you have to go through narrow caves to get to them, so they are completely untouched by the bigger boats. On the way back to the big boat we saw the local school that was just a small floating hut, it just made us realise what a different world it is there.

When we arrived back to Halong City, we had a 3 hour bus journey back to Hanoi. We had arranged to meet some people for dinner in a place Pepperoni which is an all you can eat pizza, pasta place. We had all had enough Vietnamese food the past few days and were all craving some western food! We were also going to meet some orthers in a bar that had been recommended in the Lonely Planet guide, 'The Jazz Bar' but later found out that it had been knocked down! Leaving Hanoi tomorrow morning for Phuket (via Bangkok).