After a light breakfast this morning we did a cooking class with the chef of the boat, making spring rolls. We all had the opportunity to roll them up then devour them once they were cooked.

Then it was back on with the bright orange lifejackets and back onto the tender to visit one of the many floating fishing villages in Ha Long Bay. Our guide told us that on the 1 May this year all the villagers will have to move to the mainland and the villages disbanded. It was difficult to understand why but something about the government having to deliver fresh water to the villages every day and sending a school out for the students to attend. I think it's all too hard for the government so they are doing away with it.

The homes are quite amazing, they float on a raft of timber tied onto plastic drums. All have either solar electricity or generators and some even have satellite dishes for TV. It seems ironic that they live in such primative conditions, but have mobile phones and television. A lot of the houses have an area at the front of the house where fish are kept alive and sold to restaurants and the cruise boats.

I got to hold some sort of a crustean, which initially we all thought was a stingray until we saw the underneath which had lots of legs. It truely looked like something from Dr Who.

With our tour of the villages complete it was back on the boat to collect our luggage and head back to Hanoi...via the long bumpy road. It was a bit quicker this time as we only made one stop. After a shower and a rest we headed out for our last meal together as a group.

Tim and Mariya were heading back to Brisbane; Kerry and Gary on to spend three weeks in Thailand; Donal and Deirdre on to Sapa and Naaz and Annick were off to Singapore in two days time.

We ended up having a progressive dinner as the first restuarant we went to, although it had a quaint interiror, was far too expensive so we had drink and some nibbles and moved on. After walking for ages we finally settled on another restaurant where I had anchovies and green mango...and that's all. I was expecting they might be part of a noodle type dish but alas no. They were very tasty but a little dry. Our waiter said they should be eaten while drinking beer. The boys tried a new beer which had "Vietnam's finest beer" on the label...unfortunately they all disagreed with that comment.

It was back to the hotel's piano bar for a last cocktail, a couple more songs from Gary, our farewells then off to bed. We were all sad to be leaving each other as we had all enjoyed each others company and got along so well. We hope to catch up sometime in the future to relive our adventure.