So at half 8 the next morning we were picked up from our hostel by a little bus and our local guide, Ti. We picked up the rest of our group (how the bus managed to manoeuvre its way round those tight corners of Hanoi I do not know!!) and then we were on our way! The journey took about 3 and a half hours and as we approached Halong City and the bay itself, it actually looked a little bit like a mini Miami with all the built up hotels on the beachfront. Once we were on the harbour we got into a speed boat and put on life jackets, which we then took off when we got onto our junk boat.. didn't make sense if you ask me!!? Our junk boat didn't look too great from the outside but had lovely little cabins at the bottom, a restaurant in the middle and a sun deck on top.

We were pretty lucky with the weather as it stayed dry and sunny on both days, and approaching Halong Bay itself was amazing as we had a clear view of all the limestone karsts jutting out of the South China Sea. The rest of our group consisted of an older Chinese couple, two Indian mates, a young French couple and 3 other girls who I can't tell you the nationalities of as they didn't talk to us once! It was a slightly awkward group as I think everyone preferred to keep to themselves instead of socialising, but that worked in our favour as we just wanted to soak it all up by ourselves anyway!

Don't frown on the pair of us but we may have told a little porky pie whilst on the boat.... that we were vegetarians (oopsy). Purely because we're not lovers of fish AT ALL so wanted to avoid it - but what was presented to us instead was a weeeeiiird combination. Big bits of tofu, seaweed, fish, prawns, sticky rice, a plate of chips, watermelon, salad and soup that looked like raw egg white, all laid out together! As we were only doing the 2 day trip instead of the 3 day, all our activities fell on that afternoon, so we pulled up at Ti Top Island first. We had 40 minutes where we could just chill on the little beach there, or climb the 424 steps to the top where we had a 360 degree view of the World Heritage Site which was phenomenal, and well worth that steep climb!!

Back on the boat to some karsts opposite and we got off to explore Sun Sot caves. These were massive, and full of stalactites and stalacmites, but it seemed to go on for a little too long! We then passed by the floating villages... which are amazing when you think about it, as the locals are basically living in wooden houses on rafts anchored up. It definitely makes you think about how much we take for granted back home, and how lucky we are to have 4 walls and a secure roof over our heads!

We even had the chance to step onto the village itself when we went kayaking which felt a little dodgy. Kayaking was one of our favourite and best moments of our trip so far.... It felt so surreal to be 2 tiny little beings drifting around in the middle of such a massive area of ocean, with history completing surrounding us. What made it perfect was the beautiful sunset. There were about 35 other boats doing the exact same trip as us, and once all anchored up in the evening it looked so pretty with them all lit up.

We woke up at 6 to see the sunrise, which was stunning as it came from behind one of the karsts directly facing our boat. Not long after breakfast we started heading back which took about 2 hours - time to relax and chill on the sun deck, and I spent some time collecting my thoughts. It was so peaceful and serene to hear nothing but the waves and the boat, and actually nice to not do anything for 2 days after being non stop for a month! Not to be too soppy here (and I don't want to come home either before you get any ideas ha!) but it definitely made me think a lot about my friends, family and everybody at work that I miss so much and wish could experience this too... it also let me think about how much we've already done in such a short space of time, the fact I've finally grabbed my dreams with both hands, and I'm sharing it with someone who I couldn't be more in love with.

Another 3 and a half hour bus journey back to Hanoi and we checked in to our hostel for 1 last night, to get some much needed sleep before catching our bus the next day. We took a stroll to the lake in the morning and not long after we'd sat down on a bench, a young Vietnamese girl came over asking us if we'd mind her chatting with us to learn some English. Her English was bloody brilliant!! Her name was Ngocanh and it was pretty amusing for anyone watching us trying to pronounce her name, she was even laughing too... we wish we'd filmed it for all of you back home haha. We sat there for about 2 hours just chatting about our lives back home, sharing stories and giggling. She knew so much about Vietnam and about England, and it actually made us realise our country doesn't have so much culture! We left Hanoi happy but not overjoyed at the prospect of a 12 hour overnight bus journey awaiting us..