After a good night's sleep in the peaceful bay, we enjoyed a big breakfast and spent our last few hours on the boat chatting in the dining room. On the way back, we stopped at the largest floating village in the bay and were offered a boat trip around it, but it was a bit overpriced and we could see most of it from our boat, so we stayed on board. I got off for a look at one of the fish they keep in huge tanks on one of the platforms, ready to sell. They included some of the biggest eels I've ever seen - probably enough to feed a family for a week!

Then it was time for the final sail back to Halong City harbour, a short wait and then our return three hour bus ride back to Hanoi. There we said goodbye to Nicky, Darren, Kevin and Fran and we headed back to the hotel. Our bags were still there waiting for us and we had a shower, before going back to reception to book our bus to China for Friday. We're going straight through from Hanoi to Nanning in China, where we hope to catch a flight to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warrior army.

In the evening, we had a wander around to find somewhere to eat and eventually found a little place with a rooftop balcony where we had some more good food, followed by a few more bia hoi at the crazy corner, until it ran out of bia hoi at about 8:30pm! We switched to bottled beer for a couple at a bar just off the corner called the Alchemist (good name!) then called it a night.

Tomorrow, we're off to see Ho Chi Minh in his mausoleum and one of the oldest universities in the world...