hello from the thousand islands of halong bay! well im back in hanoi now, but lets pretend. after booking the 3 day trip with chums Gabriel (baguette land) and Craig (flamin galah koala land), we boarded the minibus full of some vietnamese richies, few japanese, few scandinavians, some israelis, more french and more aussies. we drove to halong city, about 3 hours (Never Eat Shredded Wheat) East of hanoi city. the drive there was spectacular enough, with huge limestone pillars rising out of the flat paddy field covered landscape. the road was ok, just stuck on my headphones and tried to get some sleep. before we knew it we were there, gorgeous blue skies above the view of all views, we jumped off at the hotel for lunch, and from the windows you look out at a gorgeous sea full of incredible limestone islands leaping out of the water, really strange but stunningly beautiful. hmmm how many more adjectives do i know. not enough to explain how nice it is here. after a buffet of rice, spring rolls, tofu, veg and fish, we walked to our boat. this bit wasnt so great. hundreds of tourists being herded like sheep onto the boats. but after we all boarded the ships they seem to separate a bit. takes about 30mins to sail (with a motor) into the islands, everywhere you look there are small tall islands for as far as you can see. we found ourselves often just speechless, legs dangling off the boat just staring around us. taking to odd photo, putting on the odd bit of sunscreen. firstly we visited the gigantic caves, probably about the same interior size as the royal albert hall or something, but i really didnt like it, the Vietnamese have put colurful lights in the ceilings, put red spotlights in certain rock formations (saying they look liker snakes...bla bla bla usual touristy crap stories about thw 'legend' of how the islands formed- apparently a big dragon flew around and created the place. jer jer). also there was a concrete path made into the cave, especially for chunky americans to walk through to probably prevent the chance of getting sued. then there were big safety barriers, lights switches, big neon EXIT signs, the lot. wouldnt be so strange to see a maccy d's in there. ('macdonalds' great uncle Al haha).so after a swift escape, we reboarded our boat and visited a floating fishing village, and also took a smaller raft thing under a small cave and into a spectacular enclosed lagoon, no beach though just a lagoon surrounded by shear vertical limestone cliffs. amazing stuff. the rest of the day was spend sailing around, catching some rays and chillin out with a few coldies, until sunset and then some of the girls and guys left the boat to stay on the island, but us 4 guys and a french couple stayed on the boat for the first night. fantastic decision. we hada good piss up and then ended up diving off the top of the boat into the warm seas. we had anchored in a lagoon somewhere next to another boat, so ended up jumping over onto theirs and playing drinking games with them too. the canadian guy Ty lost the first game and the punishment was jumping in the sea. without a second thought he jumped in a to our amazement, PHOSPHERENCE!!!!!!!! twinkling flashing illuminous algae in the water! when its destirbed, it glows, so after that me, the kiwi guy and gal and a swedish gal all jumped in a swam around in the phospherence, and memory i will never forget and often remind myself of. moments like that, in a lagoon with great people under the stars swimming in phosperence without a worry in the world, thats what life is all about. the following morning after leaving my wallet and clothes out to dry, we had the usual crap asian breaky of banana and bread and an egg, then sailed to cat bo island. this is the largest of the islands, and has a rapidly growing town on it, very popular with local richies going for a break. we checked into a hotel and had then went on a 3 hour trek through the jungle mountains on the island, great views of the islands around us from the top. really enjoyed it. then me craig and gabriel rented out some motorbikes and ripped it around the island until the sun went down. few near misses at 100km/hr, but no worries im still here. after that me and gab went to play footy with some locals in an absolute ghetto concrete place. showed off our skills a bit, has to be done,then we went back for dinner.after ringing home and couple beers i just crashed out due to extreme fatigue and over excitement from the bikes, and woke up at 7am to reboard the boat. around 4 hours on the boat, bit of tannage and then we headed back to hanoi by mininbus. my last night in hanoi was spent bar crawling around hanoi, great fun, highligh being the Beer Hoi corner. beer hoi basically costs 1,500 Dong. put it this way, my maths isnt great, but 26,000 Dong is 1 pound, so 1,500 dong for beer is cheeeeeeeeeeeap! pretty weak stuff, but after around 25 it hits ya lol. spend the late evening in a pool bar playing against some bloody U! S! A! homeboys, gave them a good seeing to at pool, watched the premiership highlights and hit the sack. about to go get lunch now, then my bus to Laos leaves at 6pm. 24 hour bus...............minimum! apparently it could even take 36 hours to get there, it depends if anyone is working at the border post between laos and vietnam! could be a long night and day and urm anoth night on a crap bus. gota good book going (Mr.Nice) and charged the old MP3 to the max so should get through. okey dokey, speak again soon, sorry this was so long, good effort it you bothered to get this far! X