5th October 2009 - 7th October 2009:

Sean spent a lot of time researching (well that was his excuse for being on the internet for hours) which tour we should take to Halong Bay as we had heard so many horror stories of people on some boats trying to sleep despite the noise of rats running underneath. He eventually settled on Columbus Cruises - to the disappointed of Chien, the guy in our hostel, who was constantly promoting his own tour - which although a little more expensive had got some good reviews.

When we arrived our initial reaction was good, the junk boat was really nice and upon boarding we were greeted with a cool towel and some fresh juice, something which continued for our whole trip and was certainly needed given it was extremely hot. After doing a quick meet and greet with the fellow passengers we sat down for a fantastic lunch during which the food seemed to be never ending, again something which we are glad to say was also to continue for the rest of the trip.

After lunch we went to see some limestone caves and Loc, our tour guide, told us some of the history around the caves which were an absolutely spectacular sight. Afterwards we headed back to our junk boat and were brought to an isolated area where we 'anchored' for the evening. We were then able to enjoy some swimming in the bay before dinner although someone decided for the safer option and used a life jacket to go swimming - talk about living vicariously!!!!

We finished off our first night on the boat with another amazing meal and were lucky enough to be treated to cake & champagne which was brought out by the crew as a surprise for an American couple, Paolo and Amy, who were on their honeymoon.

The following day we woke up at 7am - after unsurprisingly declining the offer of getting up at 5am to see the sunset - for some breakfast and kayaking. We then, along with Paolo & Amy, joined a smaller boat and met Frank, Marn, Pascal & Chris who had been staying on our sister boat and set sail for Cat Ba Island.

Those four went trekking on Cat Ba Island but as we hadn't brought the correct shoes (supposedly flip flops aren't the best for climbing) we decided to give it a miss and instead stayed on the boat with Paolo & Amy and enjoyed the mid afternoon waters by taking in another swim.

It was such an amazing feeling swimming alone in this picturesque bay surrounded by nothing but endless beautiful islands as far as the eye could see and so relaxing - well that was until we decided to get out of the water via the dropdown boat ladder, which we did not envisage would turn into such 'an adventure'.

Although Sean found it slightly awkward he did manage to get out but Liza on the other hand had rather more problems trying to drag herself up onto the ladder - arguing that it was more difficult because her life jacket was a hindrance!! It must have taken at least 5 attempts before she even managed to get past the first step, each failure ending up with her falling back into the water and laughing hysterically.

After a few more unsuccessful attempts she was making such noise that the whole crew had popped their heads out of the boat to see what was causing all the commotion, the pressure of an audience making her laugh even more and resulting in another visit to the water!! We are glad to report that after what seemed like forever she did manage to find the strength to pull herself out of the water and meant we could continue with our trip.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sunbathing on the deck as Sean seriously needed to work on his tan. He has developed a very nice 'farmers' tan due to the fact that he has been wearing shorts, t-shirts and trainers for the last 5 weeks during which it has been really hot and means his face, lower arms and legs are tanned but in stark contrast his body, upper arms and feet are still a rather fetching pasty white, hahahahaha!

When the others returned from their trek, Liza, "Farmer Joe" and the rest of the gang were taken to our own little secluded beach. It was such a beautiful setting and whilst we were chilling out in the water the crew set up our very own table and chairs and invited us to sit down on the beach to a BBQ meal of what again seemed like endless amounts of food including squid, pork, beef, chicken, rice, tiger prawns - all washed down with ice cold beer.

After the BBQ, we headed back to our junk boat for a little siesta before dinner, where we once again were treated to a beautiful meal and amazingly even more cake (this time chocolate) & champagne as there was a birthday & anniversary/proposal on board - celebratory cakes on two consecutive days, how lucky were we!!

On the last day we were so tired that we not only slept through breakfast but also kayaking, managing to wake up just in time to check out and have some lunch. We then just lazed out on the deck watching the world go by and enjoying the great scenery as we headed back ashore to catch our coach back to the chaos that is Hanoi.

Overall Halong Bay was an amazing place, we met some lovely people and would highly recommend a trip here!