On Sunday the 15th Mike and I left for a trip to Ha Long Bay after our first couple of days in Hanoi. This was the trip I was looking forward to most in all of Vietnam and couldn't wait. (Mike was looking forward to Sapa the most - a mountain trek which unfortunately we didn't get to do as I was too ill, again, poor Mike. During the Ha Long Bay tour we met a group of three travelling together who said Sapa had been the best thing they had done during thier previous two months travelling, think I'm gonna be hearing about this for a while...)

The bus picked us up from the hotel about 8.30 am as it was a 3.5 hour journey, with a mandatory stop at a typical tourist shop for the best part of an hour which was filled with overpriced souvenirs and no air con. For the last half hour of the journey we could start to see some of the mountain islands of Ha Long Bay, which even looked amazing from the road. It started to pour with rain though which was a bit worrying.

We boarded our first boat at the harbour to take us to 'The Imperial'. Mike had sat at the back of the bus so made sure he was on talking terms with everyone and we tagged along with some other English guys who were really friendly and had loads of tips for our later travels. Our boat was really nice (a bit of a relief) with dark wooden decks and a big top deck, and our room had a great window view of the bay as it was on the higher deck.

We travelled further and further into the bay gradually getting away from the sight of the city and too many other boats. We stopped off at a cave in the bay, which was inventively named 'the amazing cave' or something to that effect. We were also told that Vietnam had decided that as Ha Long Bay had too many islands to be able to count, they had decided that there were 1969 islands, as this was conveniently the date of Ho Chi Minh's death. The cave was pretty impressive from the back as it was massive, but it was so lit with different coloured bulbs that it kind of took away the authenticity of it. There were some pretty good views from the balcony of it though. After we did a bit of kayaking (I mainly took pictures and Mike rowed) around the bottom of the cave and around some of the islands/floating houses. Loads of people live out on the water in Ha Long Bay on shack-like houses built on floating barrels. They seem to either have fish farms or sell food/etc to toureists and locals. Some poeople will row for miles and miles to reach the bigger boats to try and sell thier goods - hard work! Would also take some pretty good navigational skills as they seem to come out of nowhere.

Back on the boat we watched the sunset on the top deck over Ha Long Bay which was stunning. We then had dinner - lotttts of fish. Unfortunately all of us were equally fussy with the several fish dishes served up (we were hoping for something different as everyone other than Lee had already avoided the fish served up at lunch, and he was starting to feel ill, maybe a coincidence...) but everyone else seemed to be loving it. Mike and Daryll (one of the English guys) then sat 'squid fishing' for what seemed like hours - literally both sat at the back of a boat with the light on and a bamboo stick each with a bit of string and no bait. Surprisingly neither of them caught anything.

The next day Mike and I woke up early (Mike dragged me out of bed) to see the sunrise over Ha Long Bay from the top deck which was really pretty. After breakfast we stopped at a pearl farm, where we saw how a foreign object is implanted in the oysters for them to build a pearl upon which was interesting. We also saw them collecting the pearls from the oysters and sorting them, etc.

Back on the boat we headed for the island. Originally Mike and I were meant to be staying on the bigger island in a hotel, but when we got to the small island and saw the accomadation there we knew we had to stay there that night! The island was just a small beach with about 12 bungalows built upon it overlooking the sea with a restaruant/bat in the middle. There was nothing there at all other than the boat jetty. After about an hour of negotiation (everything in asia is so complicated!) we managed to sort a room on the island thanks to a really helpful tour guide. It was amazing - the best place either of us have ever stayed. The bungalow was on stilts over the sea and from the window all you could see was the ocean and islands.

We spent the rest of the day in the sea (Mike got to play ball games with the guys so he was happy while Carla and I avoided the ball games, think I might have to learn how to catch though as we have another 3 months!) and took the kayaks out around the islands near by with the others. That night we had a bbq on the beach which was really good and got to look out over the bay with the jetty lights brightening it up.

The next day we had to leave pretty early and get back on the boat as it was a bit of a way back to the harbour. On the boat they provided a 'cooking course' - basically showing you how to roll spring rolls which wasn't overly exciting, so instead we took in the views a bit more for the next few hours. The weather was perfect for the 3 days as well, so I think we got pretty lucky considering it's the wet season. Best trip ever!