Awoken to the sunlight and misty views from the window and it was clear we were in another word from Hanoi. Rice paddy fields and little wooden huts and children making their way to school. Out of the train at 7 to grab a fresh hot baguette and a mini bus to Sapa. A one hour, 36km climb up to the mountain village with the most amazing views into the valleys as the sun burnt away the mist. Walking around the village for a short time hunting down our digs for the...

A great night sleep for both and up for another cold dribble shower, despite the best efforts of the staff the day before after playing with the water boiler for 20 minutes they decided to install a new one! Breakfast and good byes and off on the boat back to the bigger junk for the journey back to Halong city. Settled the bill, 3 days in paradise 2million dong or $100 Taught how to make Vietnamese fried spring rolls and that was lunch on the cruise back to sho...

Today's blog starts at 1.30 am and being woken to take Siobhan to the toilet. Maybe explaining ' a cockroach is more scared of you than you should be of it' wasn't the best road to go down! Eventually both back in bed and asleep, I experienced my best night sleep since leaving Canada. Upon waking up I found that Siobh didn't share the same feelings. A belly full of tiger beers, Vietnamese food and the fear of creapy crawlies left a not so happy Siobhan for toda...

Today we should have been up early for breakfast with everyone and back on the boat back to Hanoi. However, with a little negotiation we managed to book a further 2 more night in paradise and return to Hanoi as planned later. Up early again, this time to watch the sunrise from our private deck. An early morning swim and breakfast with our departing friends. Left alone on the island until the next wave of visitors arrive, we had the beach to ourselves. We pa...

With our body clock still out of whack, we were up before sunrise. However this did mean we were able to watch a full sunrise sat on the top deck of the junk and chill for a few hours before people woke and breakfast was served. A huge (not so Asian) breakfast was served at 7am whilst cruising towards our morning activity; a floating Pearl Farm, tucked away between some limestone rocks. To my surprise it was very interesting! Just like Disney Land however, you...