After joining our intrepid tour companions we headed out on a junk boat in Halong Bay, which is about 4 hours from Hanoi in Vietnam. The boat was magnificent, the company had charted it out for the eight of us and we were well looked after by the crew (hot towels, vegetarian feast, a sun promenade with sun lounges). We cruised past through 1950 island at 6 knots chilling out with a few cans. Each island has been created by gem stones spat out by dragons when the Vietnamese were fighting the Chinese. This is according to our guide Tuong (pronounced Doin).

After a hefty lunch Tuong lead us to some caves where we disembarked and climbed through, it was full of stalactites and stalagmites in the shapes on Buddhas and turtles (a but of eye squinting needed for this!). Daniel, our tour leader, talked of a surprise hidden in the cave which we did not see, he told us what it was afterwards and we were both glad we did not see it (very rude it was).

Duong, after demonstrating his knowledge of his English vocabulary, took a few of us out on Kayaks. We passed by floating villages and people on boats selling fruit and vegetables. The sunset was beautiful but we were too busy paddling back towards the boat before darkness to appreciate it. Unfortunately we did not make it back in time so had to paddle in blackness trying to find which boat was ours.

Overall a great trip.