From Vientiane we flew to Hanoi, Vietnam, which took about 55 minutes. Hanoi is so loud compared to Laos and everybody seems to shout at each other whereas in Laos everyone was peaceful and quiet.

We arrived late afternoon to the hotel so by the time we had dropped our bags off it was dark. The traffic is awful with a bike coming at you in every direction and beeping its horn at you. We had an early night as the next day we were driving to Halong Bay, which would take around 4 hours.

Halong Bay

So far I wasnt impressed with it as there were 1000ś of tourists all yelling at each other, particularly the Chinese who do my head in! You dont need to shout, speak normally!! I had visions of our boat been owned by a family and been driven by sails, instead it was a major chain of boat companyś with big diesel engines. Never the less the room on board was good, there were sunbeds and a bar.

We Sailed, with about 200 other boats to a cave, which was spectacular. It would of been better if the 1Billion Chinese had b*****ed off. We soon dropped the anchor for the night and went for swim which was really good! The other people we were with complained that the water was salty. It was the sea, what did they expect?! The food which was included on board was fantastic, and as it dropped dark we played poker before going to bed.

We were woken this morning by the engine starting as we began our way back to the harbour. The view from the room was sweet. Halong Bay was stunning but the amount of boats and tourists spoilt it. But I would still come again some day.

We took our mini bus back to the hotel in Hanoi, wich is where I am writing this. Later we are going to see the water puppets which sounds awesome! not. Tomorrow we have a tour of the city before catching the sleeper train to Hue.

Cam on (Thank you in Vietnamese)