Its been a while since last post because have been so busy but I'm going to try and catch up over the next couple of days so keep coming back.

Hue (H-Whey) has only one interesting thing to do locally (there were motorbike trips to interesting places further afield but we didnt have time) and that is the Citadel. History-wise, you'll have to google it but more recently it was majourly destroyed by the US during the war. Other than most of the buildings being destroyed (and still left derelict) there are bullet holes all along the walls and on sides of doors. Personally this was more interesting than the templey stuff, have had my temple fill for life I think.

On the way to the Citadel we walked past a lot of street sellers, their goods were a little disturbing. Other than the usual fish in tin cans for sale there were real dog tags and spent bullet shells left behind from the war. Such a strange thing seeing dead US soldiers dog tags being sold on the street for pennies. In the war museum they also had blood stained soldiers military ID's with pictures, makes you feel a bit sick looking at the faces of those who faught in war and died. Also I learnt that the Austrailians were also in the war, news to me!

We spent the rest of our time in Hue in a bar called the DMZ bar, cool place!

Then we got the bus to Hanoi which was overnight through mountain roads at about Mach 1. Exciting stuff, luckily I slept the whole journey. We didnt stay in Hanoi and got a taxi straight to the bus station to get a connecting bus/ferry to Cat Ba Island. 

Cat Ba is the biggest island in Ha Long bay and after reading bad reviews about budget boat trips (too touristy and more of booze cruises) we decided to head here and make our own way around the 1,969 islands. Turns out to have been the best idea! 

We got there and checked into a hotel that over looked the harbour and Cat Ba town. The island has not been affected by mass tourism like Nah Trang and some other places so is very typical Vietnamese. The island is popular with vietnamese and they tend to head over to the island on weekends, which makes it hard to get a room (more on that later).

Joel only had one day there before he were to catch a bus to Hanoi to fly home so we decided to hire out some motorbikes as we hadnt done it yet and it was the easiest and cheapest way to get around. It was good to start here as the roads were quiet and there are only two roads so its hard to get lost.

It cost us 60,000 VND for 3 hours (1.50 pounds) and we headed inland not really knowing what to expect, 19km later we were driving through a locals village in an area that looked like Jurrasic Park with hundreds of massive peaks around us. The roads were great fun too, winding through the mountains. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY! It didnt take long to get to the other side of the island and when we did we found the most amazing inlet that looked beautiful, our first glimpse of Ha Long bay!

Running out of time we headed back to Cat Ba town, which turned out to be not as straight forward as expected. The roads were tarmac'ed but still there were potholes and whilst driving along a seemingly reasonable road Joel hit a pot hole and, well, flew. Landed on his back but got straight back up luckily without being too injured, mainly cuts and bruises. Quick look at the bike said there were only a few sratches so we headed back to town to hand the bikes back and clear up joels wounds.

Joel left his bike with us and went straight to the hotel to clear up. We handed the bikes back and went to walk away when the guy came running after us and showing us that the bike was actually pretty broken. Handle bars are broken, bent, which would cost us a lot in UK but after we tried to run away a few times he asked for compensation, damn. Then Joel offered him $30US and he accepted. WIN! 

We left Joel to get on his bus to Hanoi and headed to the bar.

Day 2:

Me and Richard arranged for a days kayaking in Ha Long bay and headed down to get on the boat. Met by our guide, Chan, we started with about an hours ride through the bay. My god what a place! Then we picked up the kayaks from a floating resturant and headed off, between mountainous pinacles and through cave and tunnels. We went into a bay area that was only accesable by kayaking through a small cave. The water is a clear green colour that reflects the mountains. It was nice and cool which was perfect in the heat. After paddling for a few more hours and relaxing on a deserted beach we headed back for lunch. Lunch was was a feast of different dishes which was very filling, just what we needed for the afternoons adventures.

The boat took us to another location where we kayaked 1km to a deserted beach (even more pristine than the last) and chilled with a beer. An hour later Chan led us swimming through the bay to a cave that we climbed though and led to a secret part of the island. It was shaped like a bowl and the middle was hollow with cliffs all around. During the US war the locals would hide here when they were fleeing the country. A boat would arrive in the morning and take them to China. Cool eh?!

Then we returned to the beach for more beer and race to the boat.

Day 3:

We woke up and tried to book another night in our hotel but she refused and said all the rooms were booked up (strange because nobody was there when we arrived a couple of days earlier). We thought nothing of it and packed up our bags and left them at Asia Outdoors who we were doing a days rockclimbing with. 

After breakfast the tour started by getting on the same boat as the previous day that dropped us at an island with the instructors. Tom (1 of two instructors) lead climbed the routes and roped it up. We each took it in turns to climb, the grade were 4A, 5B and a 6a (very hard!) with a 6a+ over hang. We all got up the tops of the 4a and 5b but nobody managed to get past the overhang on the 6a. Although I did get furthest and was promised a beer for it, but I never claimed it. oops! Forgot free beer.

The view from the beach and top of the climbs was amazing!!!

That was probably the best day so far, amazing place, amazing climbing and amazing people! AMAZING COUNTRY.

We got back to Cat Ba town but it seemed as though all the hotels were booked up, we walked for over an hour with two Californian girls looking for somewhere. We walked about 1.5km out of town and found 1 place that seemed a little dodgy but turned out ok. The only problem (well not really a problem ;) ) was that we had to share 1 double bed with the Californian girls that were in the same situation. We took the floor tho which was concrete. What gentlemen! 

The next day we couldnt get any money because all the ATMs were offline and we had nowhere to stay or any means of leaving the island until 2pm when I managed to withdraw some money from an offline atm and we managed to find the last two seats off the island. Phew!!!

Next time we are in Hanoi and our adventure heads to Mai Chau.