I wrote the last Blog entry on the bus from Sapa to Hanoi. We arrived about 9:00 and the city was noisy and crowded as I suppose it always is. We checked into the Golden Silk Hotel and headed to the rooftop bar for a pizza! (The first non Asian food for the trip.)

A couple of noteworthy items. Since our arrival in Vietnam we have had nice music playing wherever we have gone. However, after about an hour after we departed Sapa and possibly because now we were unable to escape, the bus driver pressed a button and a T.V. screen appeared from the ceiling where he treated us to some of the worst pop videos ever made. (Possibly, this may have been the title of the DVD) Boney M seemed to feature heavily and all were from the 1970's. It was awful and I generally quite like pop videos! The other was that when we arrived at the hotel the bus was unfortunately parked on the wrong side of the road to the hotel. The bellman had to come over and escort us through the sea of motorbikes and cars to the sanctuary of the hotel lobby like a school crossing guard escorting a group of children!

But on to today. We left the hotel at 8:30 bound for Halong Bay. This 4 hour drive was made more uncomfortable by the lack of legroom. If you think Jetstar economy class is bad this brought discomfort to a new level. There was no way that I could sit in the seat with my legs in front of me. There would have been less than half of normal economy class legroom. My left leg had to be angled at 45 degrees in order not to knee the person in front of me in the back. The other leg, also at 45 degrees was dangling into the centre well of the bus. Lisa had no show of sitting next to me and instead wisely went up to the front and sat with the driver. The traffic was chaos all the way there and I felt sorry for the bus driver as he had to return in it. We boarded a tender which took us out to the boat which was lovely. We were welcomed with a glass of hot tea and shown to our room. Very well presented and very modern with LED lighting and a clean bathroom. The boat was very stable and didn't rock at all. There was a nice top deck with a bar and lots of seating for taking in the beautiful scenery of Halong Bay. After a 5 course lunch we all boarded the tender once again for a Kayaking trip into a nice bay with several caves. Back to the boat and a shower and drinks on the top deck as the sun set then a cooking class and demonstration of food art which was amazing.

Dinner was then served which was 5 courses as well. Took a risk and ordered a glass of red. It was supposed to be French but it was not very good I'm afraid.(Vietnam is not known for its wines and so far I've tried a couple and been rather disappointed). The beer however is quite good. Off to bed at about 10:00PM