Wow, Halong Bay is stunning. Having left the chaos of Hanoi we arrived at a busy harbour port and where concerned that the quiet, calm two days of kayaking and swimming promised would not deliever. We were wrong ourselves and only two others were very quickly sailing arould Halong Bay, on a boat big enough to sleep ten, eating crab, shrimp and numerous other delicious seafood dishes and were miles away from anyone. We sailed for a few hours before docking on an island with a bar at the bottom and 452 steps to the top. The climb was definitely worth it though and the view from the top was incredible. Apparently, according to Miss Lacey it was like something from "Man with the golden gun." We unfortunately did not get to kick Niknak in the face. We than swam around the bay, the first time we had been in the sea since Egypt, it was gorgeous. We then boarded the junk again before getting in our kayaks and starting the next adventure. The kayaking was awesome and went round mountains, through tunnels and had to use our imagination lots to visualise the numerous animal shaped mountains.We then had a final swim before boarding the boat for another seafood feast and our first bottle of wine in almost a month, boy it tasted good. The next day, Hattie's birthday, we were woken by our guide to see the sunrise and Hattie was presented with a birthday "cake" made out of watermelon, pineapple and banana. More sailing and sunbathing before we arrived back at shore. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. A three hour journey back to Hanoi, crazy town, before we boarded a train to commence a 16hr overnight train journey to Hoi An. Could you think of a better way to spend your birthday night. When they describe it as a hard sleeper they werent joking.