Hanoi was broken up into 3 parts because we did 2 excursions from there and then came back to explore Hanoi. The first excursion was a trip to Halong Bay, the eighth wonder of the world and a UNESCO world heritage sight but probably most famous for that Top Gear show in Vietnam where they turned their bikes into boats to go on the water in Halong Bay. Everyone says a trip here is a must and it's difficult and no cheaper to attempt it yourself so we booked a tour through our hotel in Hanoi.

We were shown a few brochures of different boats and picked a mid range boat that looked pretty nice called the Dugong Sails. Since we were also booking our China visas through the hotel (yup we actually managed to get someone to do our visas for an alright price of $55 each) we had some leverage to barter the price down to $105 each for 2 nights 3 days including all meals but no drinks. We were shown an itinerary which included most of the things we wanted to do anyway. The next day we paid and were told by the receptionist we had a full day kayaking instead of the half day we booked. When we asked to see the itinerary again she brought us a completely different brochure and tried to pretend it was the same boat. It wasn't anywhere near as nice so we caused a fuss and despite them telling us Dugong Sails was full at first, they eventually made some calls and assured us we were on the Dugong Sails. When we got picked up the next day we were told we had been "upgraded" to Venus Cruise. Of course when we got to the boat it wasn't an upgrade (it wasn't even Venus it was Eclipse). I was pretty cross at this point and fully intended to cause a scene when we got back but after speaking to others on the boat they were all promised different boats through other tour operators and they all paid more than us. One couple paid $170 each! It seems that lying is how they make sales in Vietnam which is sad because I probably still would have paid the same amount for the boat we were on if they had just shown us that boat in the first place!

So putting aside all the hassle, we actually had a really great time. Halong Bay is like nothing I've ever seen before. In the ocean there are 2000 small mountains scattered about (called karsts) that protrude from the waters. It's really quite amazing just pottering about on the boat and looking at them. The weather was misty the whole time we were there which actually added to the effect as the karsts seemed to suddenly appear from nowhere. Unfortunately it meant the photos didn't come out so great but hopefully you can get an idea. Anyway it was just really nice chilling out on the boat and watching the scenery glide past. Except we weren't ever given much time to ourselves. The moment we got on the boat we were given enough time to dump our bags in our rooms before we had the tour guide knocking on our door "hello, are you ready to party?" He was quite keen to make it sound like we were going to have lots of fun but there never was any party to speak of! There was, however, horrendous Vietnamese karaoke which went on late into the night. Unlike in England where karaoke is a bit of a laugh with some mates, here they take it very seriously. Nevertheless, after almost 3 months of just having the two of us for company, it was nice to spend some time with the rest of the people on the boat. There were people of all ages and from lots of different countries but we all seemed to get along really well. One thing I've noticed about travellers is that they are really easy to get on with. I think this boat trip has made me realise just how many brilliant experiences we've had already in the time we've been away because we always had a story to tell from somewhere we'd been or something that had happened to us and we're not even halfway through our travels yet. Sorry guys but when we come back home you're going to be sick of all our stories!

Out itinerary on the first day consisted of exploring the Surprising Cave (I'm not sure what the surprise actually was!) which was huge and all lit up with eerie looking lights. Our tour insisted on pointing out every single shape in the rocks that looked like a turtle, elephant, a couple kissing or anything else. Some of these shapes were quite tenuous and we reckon he may have been on some sort of hallucinogenics the first time he visited the cave. We then went to a beach on another island, which was already full of hundreds of tourists, where we could either swim or trek up to the top of the karst where there was a small temple. I hadn't brought my swimming gear but I took the lazy option and opted to just sit and watch rather than trek. For once being lazy paid off because it promptly began to pelt down with rain and later a huge lightening bolt struck the temple! See, exercise is not always good for you! So the whole of our group huddled under some trees for shelter, all except Bryan who had decided to play football with some Vietnamese people as you do in a thunderstorm!

All our meals were included on the boat and there was always plenty to go around at meal times. The food was simple and involved mostly fish so Bryan and I had to man up and get stuck in! I'm actually really proud of our efforts as we always tried everything that was put in front of us. I still wouldn't choose to eat fish if there was anything else available but some of it was alright. We actually discovered that we really like clams! For once I hope that the fish wasn't so fresh that it had been caught in Halong Bay waters because unfortunately the water is disgusting. It's such a beautiful area but it's been totally ruined by rubbish. Literally everywhere you look there's plastic bottles and bags, takeaway polystyrene, cans and most other things you can think of. Normally I would blame tourists but we've seen the way people in SE Asia drop litter wherever they are. It's such a shame that they've spoiled the area. I assumed that when they took us kayaking it would be in cleaner waters but no such luck. We were able to paddle through diesel topped waters watching tin cans and sanitary towels float past us. Lovely! However, there was a highlight to the kayaking, and it wasn't when Bryan got out of the kayak first and "accidentally" capsized it with me still in! We waded through a number of caves with the usual stalactites but one was different to the others. We paddled through the dark cave and came out the other side to an amazing lagoon completely surrounded by green mountains. It looked completely surreal like a scene from Lost, but it gets even better. I looked at the clear waters and spotted a jellyfish, and then another, and another. We soon realised the entire lagoon was filled with thousands of them and they were such pretty colours. Apparently this is where the baby jellyfish come to grow up before they move out into the bigger waters. It was such an incredible sight but unfortunately there's no photos because I couldn't take my camera on the kayak.

So back on our boat, as you can imagine, since drinks are not included in the price and they kind of have a captive audience, drink prices were 3 or 4 times the price of the mainland. Fortunately, we planned ahead slightly and brought along a decent supply of water to see us through but we didn't bring any soft drinks, beer or wine so we were stuck with their price list...or were we? One of the more innovative ideas I've seen in SE Asia is the ladies on the shop boats. They paddle around the boats selling all sorts of things but mainly drinks and snacks. We managed to get one to stealthily row up to our bedroom window and negotiated the price of some drinks. The transaction was made through the window and then the boat lady made her merry way on to the next tourist boat. The reason for the stealth mode was because our boat charges rip off "service charges" if you bring your own drinks onto the boat. This meant we had to hide our drinks from the staff but it was worth it!

On our way back to shore on the final day, we were supposed to take a different route back through another part of the bay. One of our group was mapping our route on his iPhone and discovered we went back the exact same way. If he hadn't have told me I don't think I would have known anyway since it all looks pretty similar but it would have been nice to see more of it (not to mention getting the itinerary we were sold). We did stop off at an oyster farm where we could see the process for culturing pearls. It was quite interesting and they did have a shop where you could buy pearl jewellery from but they weren't exactly backpacker prices! We eventually got back to land at Halong City, which is not the nicest of places to welcome you back. Fortunately we only had to wait an hour or so for our minibus to pick us up and take us back to crazy Hanoi. Once there we had a few hours to kill before catching our sleeper train to Sapa.