Hello from Halong Bay, Vietnam!

When starting my journey through Vietnam, I was most excited about seeing Halong Bay, which is supposidly a beautiful display of up to 900 islands and coves jotted along the coast line. We arrived in Halong early this morning and had a private boat for our group to take us around the islands. However, with so much travelling last night (it took over 18hours to get from here), the weather has changed dramatically. Unfortunatly we were not met with spectacular views like the one pictured and instead it was overcast and grey. I was not pleased to have to wear a long sleeved top and hoodie for the first time, and even my raincoat made its first appearance.

Although the weather was dismal, the sight was definatly still worth seeing, and inside the caves was amazing. The trip was also worth the amount of food we were given; I don't think I ate that much food in the whole of last week! The 16 plates of seafood were intended for four, but with 2 of the girls feeling ill, me and Nadina (my room-mate) perserved through all of them in the hope that we wont have to pay for food for the next few days! Fingers crossed I won't be ill after eating everything from crab served in its shell to a fish with its head intact!

Although we are now enduring the cold weather in the north of Vietnam, I have had a lovely few days in coastal towns before coming here. On Tuesday, we spent another day in Hoi An which remains to be my favourite place so far. After quickly recovering from being ill on Monday, we went on a lovely 4 hour bike ride the following morning. Although unlike me I actually really enjoyed it, and we stopped quite often to look at the views and take pictures of the stunning countryside. After cycling for that amount of time I was pleased that our last stop was yet another glorious beach where we spent the afternoon.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Hue. Our tour guide decided that it would be nice if we took the 'scenic' route, and so we stopped off at a place called Marble Mountain. I was not prepared for the next hour which involved us climbing 200 steps up the mountain side to get to some caves. As if that wasn't bad enough, I should have guessed that the next bit would be worse when our guide said she would wait for us at the bottom. Whilst wearing flip flops, we climbed through a cave which was pitch black and too small to stand up in. Although I was exhausted by the time we got to the top, the view was pretty spectacular so maybe I shouldn't have moaned quite so much...

Once we arrived in Hue, we spent the afternoon on a motorbike tour of the city. Although we stopped off at yet another temple, I got some great pictures of the countryside (if only facebook would work well enough to let me upload them!)The only downside to Wednesday was that I was covered in bites and stings from all of our journeys through the countryside but never mind!

However, by Thursday I woke up to see that a sting on my thumb had gone slightly blue and my thumb had swollen up to the point where I couldn't bend it. After it became progressively more red and swollen, the swelling started to move down my arm and it got to the point where I had to give in to the guides insistance that we called a doctor. Unfotunatly, not only did I miss the morning trip to The Citadale temple, but I am now $50 worse off and also on antibiotics (but to be fair I am shocked that I managed to last over 2 weeks!)

So we left Hue last night, and took another sleeper train to get to where I am now. Luckily this train was much nicer than the last. However, rather embassingly, I did fall completely off my bed at one point and onto the floor when clearly forgetting how small sleeper train beds were and attempting to roll over! So now apart from a bruised hip from my fall, a swollen thumb from an infected insect sting and the very cold weather, I am good!

Hope you are all well too xxx