So we arrived in Hanoi at around 11pm picking our luggage up and finding a taxi. About half an hour in the taxi we arrived at Hanoi Backpackers which looked ok but the street we was in look awful. We checked in straight away, and by this time it was just gone 12am so Matt wished me Happy Birthday and gave me the cards and presents from him and the girls. I got a T-shirt from Gem which she had made herself on the net about giving me a kiss as it's my birthday and had to wear it out the next night. After that we hit the sack getting up earlyish the next morning.

We got up and took our Passport's to the Thai Embassy for a 60 day Visa that we would get in back in a couple of days. Matt bought me mine for my birthday, what a pal! Then had some brekky before doing some washing to pick up later that day. We was talking to the travel desk about some boat trips to Halong Bay for a couple of nights so we booked a fairy relaxed boat. On this boat we could Snorkel, rock climb, Kayaking and just relax and go in the sea. There was a party boat for 3 days which sound a bit mental so we gave that one a miss. After all this was booked we went to a posher side of Hanoi to a shopping centre where they had a cinema showing alot of the latest films. When we got there we had a little look around before heading upstairs to check out what films were showing. They were showing the new Paranormal Activity 4, it had just come out this morning which was handy as we both wanted to watch it. It was lucky as one was just about to start as we got up there. It was a goodish film, not the best but wasa couple of jumpy bits init. By this time it was about 5pm and we were skying the girls so they could sing happy birthday to me, they had been on a boat trip all day so a little bit tipsy, well Jo was. Me and Jo had got close in Sydney as I had told you before so we had a few Skype chats and agreed that we would give it a go and start seeing eachother as we were both happy with eachother. We then booked a cheap flight to Bangkok for ฃ70 so we could get a 12 hour sleeper train to Chiang Mai for ฃ5 each instead of booking a flight straight from Hanoi to Chiang Mai as it was about ฃ200. After that we headed back to the Hostel where I had to wear the T-shirt that Gem bought me and my silly trousers that I had bought myself as I thought they looked cool. It wasn't really a good night as it wasn't busy but we still had a few drinks and went to an Irish bar for a while before getting our head down ready for the early morning get up for this trip.

8am and the alarm went off getting up to go on our 2 day boat trip. Got downstairs and straight away a bit of bother came along. They told us we would need our Passports to go on this boat, but the annoying thing is that we had told them the night before that our Passports were in the Thai Embassy but they said it would be ok. They said we could have our money back or go on the party one for 2 days instead of 3. So we just went on the party one not knowing that it was 3 hours to Port then a 5 hour trip to the Island that we were stayinh at. So literally all day travelling there a beach party, then all day travelling back the next day. So we just went along with it. When we got on the boat at the Port we had a little circle of giving out your names, where your from to try and get to know everyone. Had a little drinking game then jumped in the sea for a little swim, well Matt did. I had bad stomache cramps and had them for the past few days which were painful. When we got to the Island we had to do a dance for the people that were already there so all the girls got there boobs out while all the lads got completely naked and put a Mexican hat over there privates while singing 'Hey June'. We got off got into our shacks and went to the bar for a drink and some dinner. It was a big buffet and quite nice food. There was a boy called Mike who was a bit over the top on certain drinking games which was annoying as he was smashed already. We had a good few beers a dance and realised it wasn't too bad, met a few nice people before going to bed about 2am.

We had to be back on the boat at 8am with the group that had been there for a day as it was a 3 day trip, so that Mike bloke was on our boat on the way back, still drunk. You couldn't really relax as when you laid there he was coming round waking you up, making you get up but by this time everyone had a bit of the hump as they wanted to just sleep and relax for our 8 hour travel home. Mike had a shot of Tequila before getting on the boat. He gave everyone on the boat a nickname, Matt was Lerch and I was Mini Me, but it was funny as I got up had had a little dance with him to stop him from annoying me a little bit, just a bit too much. After our long travel back we checked back into a dorm, went out to look for a Ipod for me as I had my phone nicked and wanted some music for our log journeys ahead. Managed to buy one, went back, had dinner, uploaded some music onto it and wrote the blogs before going to bed as the last night sleep wasn't too good on the Island.

The next morning we got up and straight out the door to pick up our Passports from the Thai Embassy, had a look around the town for a bit before jumping in a taxi to the Airport for our flight to Bangkok.