Good evening! We have just arrived back from our overnight trip to Halong Bay which was a 4 hour journey from Hanoi. Halong Bay has been named as a site of natural beauty and is protected by the world heritage society, i can see why! It was absolutley gorgeous! Halong Bay is over 3000 limestone islands protruding from the sea which are covered in foliage. We left Hanoi yesterday morning and arrived at the dock in Halong City ready to board our boat! The boat was lovely and our cabin was also very sweet. We came on the trip with Holly who we had the 'taxi incident' with and she has been staying with us for the last few days. We had lunch on the boat which was rather yummy before stopping at a small 'dock' situated right in the middle of the sea. This was where the fisherman kept their catch of the day fresh in large containers submerged into the sea. There were crabs (very big ones!), large fish, starfish, shrimps, clams, mussels-everything you can imagine! We were told we could chose what we wanted and the chef on the boat would prepare it for our dinner. Jenny and Holly chose some rather large shrimps that were later served to them on a plate on the boat! (Dad-you would have been in seafood heaven, i took some pictures for you!). As im not a fan of seaood i stuck to the veg and rice! After lunch we stopped at a cave that had rather a large amount of steps to climb to reach it but it was certainly worth it as the cave was spectacular! We then got back on the boat and it stopped for a while so the passengers could go for a swim. In the evening, after dinner, we had a 'party' on the boat as its Jenny's birthday today. Jenny celebrated her 23rd birthday by jumping into the sea off of the boat at midnight, certainly a birthday to remember! We were woken this morning at 7am (aarrggh!) for breakfast before heading back to the dock which we reached at midday. It was absolute bliss just sitting on the deck of the boat for a few hours in the blazing sun, taking in the wonderful scenery. It was such a shock arriving back in Hanoi as its so crazy compared to the peacefulness of Halong Bay. Hanoi is a maze like structure of tiny streets that is virtually impossible to navigate around and the amount of motorbikes is astonishing. In order to cross the road you just have to step out into the street and the bikes go around you! Oh and i forgot to mention in my last entry that during our trip to the temple of literature the other day, my handbag got slashed. Luckily i noticed a group a women around me acting strangely so i moved away rather quickly so their little plan didnt work. It made me realise how careful i have to be though. Holly, Jenny and i are going out for a nice meal for jenny's birthday tonight and then tomorrow we are going to the local market and another museum before leaving at 7pm to go to our next stop, Hue (another 12 hour bus journey!) So au-revoir for now, Love Sara xxxxx