Halong Bay was once a fierce battle ground that saw one of Vietnam's heroes, General Tran Hung Dao, defeat Chinese invasion three times. His most famous victory, in 1288, sealed Vietnam's sovereignty and was masterfully done. Under his instruction after dark, sharpened bamboo poles - that were designed to be invisible at high tide - were set vertically in the water. Small Vietnamese boats, that easily passed between the poles, goaded the Chinese fleet towards them and when the tide receded the Chinese ships were left suspended above the water allowing the Vietnamese to set them ablaze with flaming arrows. Practically every street running parallel with a river in Vietnam is named Tran Hung Dao in memory of his sweeping victory.

After our stay onboard our idyllic boat we now made our way towards Monkey Island where a sea view cabin was waiting for us.

We first had a brief bus ride along Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island was declared a national park in 1986 due to its diverse eco-system - the rarest primate in the world, the gold-headed langur also resides here where thin remaining 65 of them are carefully monitored.

The island is largely untouched as agriculture is virtually impossible. The biggest form of cultivation we saw were vast fish and oyster farms bobbing about in calm inlets. They looked like huge bamboo rafts all lashed together and when the farmers poured buckets of diced fish into the netted enclosures the water writhed and roamed with manic fish thrashing about to get their share.

Monkey Island looked like a paradise as our second boat chugged towards it. The thatched roofs and white sand looked very inviting as hawks skimmed along the waves looking for fish.

Our room was superb, with a great view of the bay and complimentary soap - we felt like kings.

Activities on the island were ample and first on the agenda was a brisk hike over the island to see the monkeys. We had been warned off these small, golden b*****s as they pinched your stuff and had been known to bite tourists, resulting a need for three, painful, rabies shots as well as the bite itself. Alex, a French Canadian who spent 90% of his time drunk as a lord, ran towards them yelling 'Monkeys!' like an excited child and eventually started crawling towards them. Whilst most people shouted warnings of caution I sat back, happy to let natural selection help order the world. To everyone's astonishment however they didn't threaten him at all and when he returned with bananas they regarded him as a dog would regard its owner and sat patiently as he handed out the food and told greedy monkeys off.

With monkeys observed, myself and Basil (a soft spoken English-Pakistani man) launched a canoe onto the water and had an explore around the limestone karst. We encountered a humongous jelly fish that silently drifted pasted us (laying waste to any thoughts of a swim) and explored a dark and ragged cave.

All adventured out and getting to an old and miserable age in my life I went to bed at a robust eight o'clock, despite a small fire being lit and dancing being enjoyed around it.