Hello! We are so sorry it's been ages since we updated our blog. We'll have to backtrack a few weeks now to update you on the rest of our trip in Vietnam. After we last wrote, we headed up on a nigh bus to the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. From there, we went to visit Halong Bay, an area that really brought us to Vietnam in the firstplace. We had heard some really good things from friends that had already visited and knew that we were in for some good weather so were really excited to go.

We were picked up from our hotel in Hanoi early in the morning (luckily we left our big luggage there so didn't have to cart backpacks on and off of boats) and drove for 3 hours to get to Halong Bay. We realised pretty early on that the 'tour' really was a package tour - the itinerary was crazy, the tour guide (who named himself 'Lucky') was telling us things like "at 3pm you will do this, and then at 4.15pm you will do this" so we were on a really tight schedule which isn't something we enjoy. But we knew the only way to see Halong Bay was this way so just had to be patient and do what they said. We stopped halfway though the bus journey at a 'service station' which clearly existed just for tourists to stop off at when doing the journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay - that just shows you how much this trip is done. It was a huge building full of Vietnamse souvinears which you wouldn't ever buy as everything was riiculously expensive. People just used it for the toilet, to buy a bottle of water and then left as quickly as they could!

When we finally got to Halong Bay we were introduced to our boat and crew. We were lucky that there was just a small group of 10 of us on the boat and there were bedrooms onboard too so we could stay overnight. We were given lunch and then the boat took us in to the bay. The scenery was absolutely stunning, as we nearerd the bay you could just see the limestone peaks looming up in the distance. It was pretty cloudy which worried us as we have heard of trips getting called off because the fog gets really bad, but once we were nearer it was really clear and we had a beautiful view.

First stop on the annoying itinerary was a visit to some 'amazing caves' which would have been amazing if they hadn't been discovered! They were so tacky and had been covered in different coloured lights so wherever you looked it was like a nightclub. We really did't enjoy the cave 'tour' and felt that our guide was just making up the names of rocks and saying things to impress us like "oooh, this rock is very luky" and "if you touch this rock you will be very lucky" - just not our scene at all. After being paraded around the cave we got back on to the boat (told you it was all scheduled!) and sailed for a few hours. This was the higlight of our trip: just beng left alone to enjoy the scenery, and luckily our boat seemed to take a route so there were no other boats in sight! It was just so peaceful and allowed us to relax away from the group and take in the vast surroundings.

Before we knew it, it was itinerary time again and the group were told "now it is time for kayacking and swimming". We declined, I think we were being rebellious and just wanted to get away from a 'group activity' so we sat on the top deck with a Tiger Beer and relaxed. our tour guide just couldn't understand why on earth we would want to just do that - it was hard to explain to him that we had already kayacked and swam til our hearts content on this trip already and were also very aware that once the boats were parked up, everyone using the toilet was actually polluting the water with their, erm, business, so we didn't really have a stong desire to swim through that!!

After the kayacking and swimming time was up, we were ordered to 'have a shower and prepare for dinner' so, giggling, we did just that. The dinner was typical Vietnamese food (lots of meat and fish swimming in oiland white rice) but we were lucky enough to get some vegetables too which was nice. The tour guide had promised us some 'crazy fun' that evening (we are not making this up, I promise!) which turned out to be karaoke. Everyone in Asia just LOVES karaoke, and can not understand that westerners generally, do not want to do this unless they are very, very drunk. Our boat was full of couples and a dad and his kid so it wasn't really the right scene to introduce karaoke, but our crew didn't seem to pick up on this and launched in to very, very bad karaoke until the early hours of the morning. It was all in Vietnamese as well so we couldn't really tell if it was happy or sad music - it really was very bad but the comedy value was great! We went to bed in our cabin (joined by a cockroach which really freaked us out) in the middle of a bay of limestone peaks - it was just amazing to know that you were surrounded by them and so quiet and peaceful (well, apart from the karaoke). What a wonderful experience.

The next day we woke up to rain unfortunately, but it did give Halong Bay a kind of eerie look to it which was a nice contrast to the sunshine we had the day before. The boat took a slow sail back to the dock which took a good few hours, and we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the scenery (and spotting HUGE jellyfish in the water, so glad we didn't swim in it!). When we got back to the dock we were again, put on a schedule and all pushed in to a restaurant like cattle where we HAD to eat lunch at 11.30 but wait around until 12.45 before we could leave the place. By this time we were so sick of being package tourists and would have left if it hadn't meant we would miss our ride back to Hanoi!

Halong Bay was a wonderful experience, we just felt it was a real shame that the experiene had been spoilt as so many other attractions have been, by tourists and money hungry tour guides. To be able to do Halong Bay independently would have been much better but we were told that this isn't possible so had to join the crowds!! But we are so happy we did it and experienced it, and hope you like the photos!!! xx