We woke, packed up, put our big bags in the hostel storage and went down for breakfast. This consisted of a free baguette with bananas (mmm banana butties) and a mug of coffee.
We had to meet in the downstairs area for the bus to take us to Halong Bay. We got there at 12pm (it's 4 hours from Hanoi including the stupid 20min tourist stop looking at 'souvenirs' at a hiked up price). The minibus was split into two and the two groups stepped aboard separate boats. Our boat 'the jolly roger' was a nice boat. It had a bottom beck a middle deck and a top deck. Our room was on the bottom. When we arrived we went straight to the top deck. It was freezing! There was fog and mist all around. The top deck was like the ones you see in films too. It had sun loungers, chairs, a little canopy area, speakers (that they let Lee plug his iPod into) - the type you imagine loads of people in swimwear drinking and partying on. We had thick jumpers, trousers and a can of Hanoi beer.....
Once the boat had got further out we were joined to the other boat that the other half of the minibus were on and told you could swim.... Lee jumped in 1st then a few people followed. There was no way I was jumping in - I was shaking with dry clothes on?! When everyone got out it was kayak time. We climbed into the kayak from the boat (so we didn't have to get wet) and paddled away, with the guide in front, to the 1st cave. After we'd gone through the hole in the rock we were told that was the 1st cave. We paddled on until we came to a little beach. The tour pointed at the entrance and the exit. He then said you'll need a torch it's very dark inside. The iPhone saved the day again! We climbed inside looking around, not sure where to go. When we came back towards the light the sun was bursting through the cave and it looked beautiful. Like a natural picture frame. When we climbed back to the guide (who had stayed on the beach) we asked why we hadn't come out the exit he'd said because we'd comeback through the entrance. He said we must have gone the wrong way.... Sooo we paddled past a fishing village to another fishing village to dock our kayaks. The little huts on the water had wide screen teles! Looked more like a Pirates home rather than a fisher mans humble abode?! Once back on the boat we freshened up then ate. There was an American tour guide from the hostel on the boat too. He invited the other boat members into ours to begin the drinking games. We'd been playing UNO with 4 people we'd been sat with at dinner (all from Oz) so we went to their cabin to carry on playing and they had a bottle of vodka too!!! The drinking games were with alcohol you had to buy from the overpriced bar (to be honest the tour seemed to be aimed at getting bladdered and ripping you off in the process- no alcohol was allowed to be brought on the boat and the cost on the boat was double than on land)
When we came back up half an hour later everyone was bladdered. Seriously within half an hour! The music was booming, girls were dancing on tables.... So me and the bar man had a shot of tequila (lee wouldn't have 1) then the bar man bought me a can to shot gun with him in return.... Beer is so filling (I miss a simple glass of wine or vodka and lemo with a dash of lime cordial) so I moved onto vodka and 7up. The American tour guide stood up to tell every1 that we had to be up and out the rooms for 7 and breakfast would be served at 7:30. A lad through his cup at the guides head in protest and got his pride massively dented when the guide said he was gonna knock him out when he'd finished talking. Next minute the cup throwing lad charged at the guide. The guide seen him and managed to push him away in time but the lad came back for seconds. It turns out the guide was a wrestler back home which paid off because he carried on talking to us all as he locked this idiot up and another passenger on the boat sat on him.... The idiot got up and laughed, half hugged the guide and walked off (the guide just shook his head). As the idiot walked past us and our new Oz friend Hana told him the cup had hit her in the face as it bounced off the guide. He grabbed her by the arm and pushed her... Not sure why because he just stayed there holding her arm until I told him to go away.
You will never believe who came out the toilet when I was going in... The idiot! And he remembered me thus so he refused me access to the toilet. When I heard him speak I realized he was Scottish and we'd just been listening to Biffy Clyro so I told him. He didn't seem bothered by this piece of information more my accent. Apparently he doesn't like Scousers. I informed of Widnes and it being inbetween Manchester and Liverpool (I'm trying my hardest to put Widnes on the map) apparently he had a distaste to Northerners. Pretty silly really when on the grand scheme of things Scotland is more North than any of the places I'd said! I nudged the idiot out of the way of the toilet and went in locking the door behind me. We called it a night a little after that.