We all overslept, 3 alarms and we woke up at 8:30 (the time the bus was meant to leave), luckily everything is always late in Vietnam! No wading this time, the puddle had reduced enough for the bus to drive through. Hot boat to a hot wait for the next bus in ha long. Driving back to Hanoi I noticed how many major construction projects are ongoing throughout the country, someone must be pumping money in to fund them. Settled into a hostel in Hanoi by 6:30, got a...

Another fantastic day, started by booking some flights and a place to stay for the full moon party. Then got some scooters from the hostel. Went to the beach an met Caroline and cherise, and had a swim for a bit, headed back for a shower and lunch, then went for a ride, with me and soph on a bike and: the Swiss girls, Ryan, josh and Toby. Explored cat ba, although national park was shut :-(. But rode around for 3-4 hours along Tarmac roads and gravel/under cons...

Awesome day on cat ba, got up at 11 and headed for breakfast (fried rice chicken), then hunted down a beach. Two deck chairs for ~ £4 split between 4 of us. Swam and explored some small caves, then rented some inner tubes and floated with r & jj for a while. At 3 suddenly billions of people showed up, music started pumping, and a team building group (50 people + leader with megaphone) started their activities, we stuck around till 4:30 then headed back for ...

Woke up to another gorgeous day, absolutely boiling hot in bed though. Took money out and tried to post some of Sophie's stuff back, but post office people very unhelpful (didn't have a box she could use), couldn't even get an empty box from a shop! Waited to get picked up for the boat to cat ba with Ryan and josh, taxi arrived hour late, then sat in the boat station for an hour or so. Great day from here on... Boat ride for 3 hours, sat in sun on top deck wit...

Landed into overcast Hanoi, and it started to drizzle. We made the decision to head straight to Ha Long Bay, because even if there isn't sun we can at least get some some sea! Got a taxi from Hanoi to ha long (was convinced by the travel agent not to take the bus, and by the sound if it it was a good idea, bus sounded horrific!) taxi driver tried to put us in a hotel in HL, but way too expensive, so he put us in a cheaper one and we stupidly committed and handed ...