Barry had promised the kids early morning kayak trips, so we got up extra early and they paddled around the bay before breakfast. After we ate, we were back on board our boat and slowly heading back. The kids were a little sad that we couldn't stay longer with their new friends, but we have a lot of ground to cover in the next 10 days so we'd deliberately decided on only one night instead of two. The boat ride went quickly and though we'd left one British famil...

Our alarm shocked us out of a sound sleep, but we were packed and at the Golden Sun hotel by 8:00 am where we met up with several other travellers. Our overnight tour to Halong Bay awaited and we were full of high hopes. The minibus was comfortable and we'd only taken small backpacks for this short excursion, so everyone had room to enjoy the lush Vietnam landscape. The trip took about 4 hours with a bathroom / shopping break included at a craft market, where we...