A 6am start with a group of very excitable Vietnamese TAs far too early in the morning! Most of the boys rolled up drunk after only a few hours sleep. We were split on to 2 coaches and it wasn't long before the beers and vodka were opened to help pass the time on the long journey.

The entertainment kicked in (karaoke) with the Vietnamese teachers leading a version of 1 little duck - the only sentence we managed was quack,quack,quack,quack but we tried much to their amusement.John and Tiep gave us a lovely dance to go with the duck song and the Vietnamese TAs can't get enough of him. Before long songs from all the home towns were whipped out although they all sounded quite haunting and depressing.The boss man made his ways through the coach to cheers everyone, grinning the whole way down. Then John's impersonations were under the spolight and we were treated to the John Harris show. After wrestling the mic away we sang a few songs including my duets with Monika on Ironic and Jack for My Heart Will Go On! Thankfully everyone was saved by a toilet break ... in squat toilets. I was ready to burst but so far hadn't been able to overcome the fear and go in a squat toilet. It took a while but eventually it happened, thank god otherwise travelling on to other countries might have proved difficult!

We checked into the hotel which was ok apart from some crumbly walls and slightly orange water. Oh and the dead roach in the bathroom that we discovered after being out all night. I was very brave though and just sprayed it with some deodourant (it's legs were stil moving) and went to bed.

The rest of the day was spent on the beach sunbathing and paddling until about half 4 when the TAs arrivied and it was time for organised fun :s. At first I thought everyone had regressed to being 10 and had no patience with singing if you're happy while skipping round in a circle. Then the tug of war rope arrivedand it picked up, even though I lost - twice. I even went for a paddle in the sea but it's not even close to the blue waters you see on the postcards!

Food was provided all weekend and it was amazing - mainly seafood so I wasn't sure but ate everything apart from the prawns and oysters. we even got kebab skewers and a few chips. I dissected my first crab and it was nice but a lot of effort for very little reward. The only downside was that I think there were fish eyes hiding in one of the soups we had.

After dinner we went to the night market where they tried to charge us a fortune I knocked a t-shirt down by 50,000 dong as I knew what people had paid in the old quarter. The TAs advised us not to buy things there as they were very expensive and not handmade so poor quality. Phuong and Vu turned up while we were there (as they do) and pulled Alex in to help sell more General Giap t-shirts. Our managers eyed them very suspiciously! Phuong has invited me to his uncle's house to drink rice wine next time we go to Halong.

We bought chocolate smoothies and added our own ingredient (vodka) and headed to the beach for a game of 'I have never...', always seems like a good idea at the time and very revealing as people are quite honest.

Sunday was another early start for the boat after banh mi trung (omelette or fried egg in a roll) which is perfect for a hangover. We were separated on to 2 boats which was a bit rubbish but most of the TAs chose to get on one boat together anyway so it wasn't very evenly split. As soon as we were allowed we were on the top deck sunbathing which the Vietnamese teachers thought was mental. The islands do look beautiful but I can't say I was overwhelmed in the way I expected to be after the reports I'd heard. Maybe it was because of the mist or the fact that we only left the boat at one point to see some natural caves. I would definitely like to go back to go to the islands, jump off the boat for a swim and do some kayaking.

After one last paddle in the sea and some more karaoke (of course) we headed home. The boys had bought some highly annoying shell horns at the caves and insisted on playing them the whole way home (joy). They turned into 6 year olds blowing them through their noses and pretending to fart into one while another blew theirs.

It was a very enjoyable but surprisingly tiring weekend and I hope there will be more like it over the next few months!