It was an early start for our transfer to Halong Bay, we were collected from our hotel had a nice ac minibus for the three hour transfer. There was one stop half way through at some purpose made service station where you can buy all the usual garbage but with grossly inflated prices! On the way there the guide took us aside and muttered something about not telling people what price we paid. We didn't really understand but just smiled and nodded.

We arrived at the chaotic port of Halong City, tour groups everywhere. Eventually we were put aboard a launch to take us to our boat. The boat we were taken too was pretty sweet, looking around it was hard to spot one that was quite as good as ours. We had a nice lunch where the food wouldn't stop coming and chatted to a pair of sisters who were in south east asia for a month. After lunch we were shown to our cabins and we were in for a suprise. The room was beautiful and the bathroom was easily the best we have had all trip! We settled down on the sun deck for the journey from Halong city to the bay itself. Unfortunately the weather wasn't exactly great, it was fairly overcast and there was rain showers every now and then.

The boat anchored in a nice looking bay and we got taken to a cave. We were told this was "Amazing cave" it had a fairly large cavern but had been fairly butchered with electric lighting everywhere and steps cut into the rock. It was impressive but could probably have done without the graffiti. After that we did some kayaking in a Kayak probably older then we were, we were given funny paddles where the blade angle didn't feel quite right. We had a nice paddle round the bay and took in the scenary. Back on the boat it was time for a swim, this is where the boat pretty much becomes a diving board! It took some coaxing but Tom eventually got Charlie over the rail on the second floor of the boat and we both jumped together! It was great but there was quite a strong current running which meant you had to swim quite hard to get back to the boat. An entire family jumped in with life jackets and it became quickly apparent they couldn't swim - complete madness! but asia's nonexistent health and safety precautions made it all ok. The guide was excellent in making sure they all got back on the boat. . .eventually. Following a few more jumps Tom decided to get Charlie to jump from the top deck, She was really brave and eventually did it but got a slightly bruised bum from the landing in the water and decided enough was enough!

That evening we got chatting with an Australian couple called Mike and Amy, they were great company and it was great spending the evening talking to them, and looking at their INCREDIBLE holiday photos (they are proffessional photographers) which got us very excited for Cambodia. Following a massive and pretty tasty dinner they enlightened us about what the guide had muttered to us on the bus to the boat. It turned out that the boat we booked was full so we had been bumped to the next boat up, this meant that the total amount we paid for the trip was what this couple were paying per night on the boat. It was a pretty good feeling that night going to bed knowing that for once we hadn't payed too much for something!

The morning was not good, Charlie awoke with a very bad stomach. Unfortunately the guides were only interested in chasing us off the boat and onto our transfer to Cat Ba island. Charlie was sick several times that morning and it was a really difficult time. The bus doing the transfer broke down and the entire group was left on the side of the road in the baking heat. We were really lucky that we had Mike and Ann and another pair Manc ladies called Katie and Emma (luckily Katie was an intensive care nurse, so that was such a great reassurance). They were all really fantastic and helped make Charlie as comfortable as possible, the guides unfortunately were useless. Eventually we were able to check into our hotel and Charlie crawled into bed with the AC on max. This seemed to really help and it seemed like she turned a corner immediately.

Tom took some time that afternoon to explore Cat Ba island. The guide had mentioned a beach that sounded good so I headed over there for a dip. I was befriended by a Vietnamese family in the water, the Dad insisted on giving me a sand massage which was invigorating! His son could recite the entire squads of Manchester United and Chelsea football teams, unfortunately his english wasn't so good but it was cool hanging out with him for a bit. On the walk back I made friends with another local a large german sheppard dog, I named him James. He walked quite a long way back with me but refused to walk past a group of locals. Presumably he knows what they tend to do to large dogs in Vietnam!

Charlie seemed like a different person that evening following a bit of rest and finally managing to keep fluids down. She made it out to the waterfront for a can of coke with the Manc ladies and a few other people from the tour. She even had the strength to get a neck and shoulder massage from a vietnamese man going from table to table. The idea came up of going to the beach for a drink so with Charlie tucked up in bed tom headed over to a different beach for some frisbee and a few beers. It was a cool evening with the stereo typical Halong mountains lit up by the moonlight.

The next day was Toms turn to have a bad stomach! Fortunatly the day was a travel day back to Hanoi but it was pretty tricky trying to stay hydrated. On the return we got to see the bay in sunshine though which was amazing! Unfortunately it seems the swim the night before has claimed a victim in Toms waterproof camera. There was water behind both the battery and the comm seals so I we guess the heat was too much for the rubber. Fingers crossed for a miraculous recovery but were not very hopefuly (sad face).

Back in Hanoi now and preparing to take the night train to Sapa. Not ideal coming off two bad stomachs but theres no choice so were just going to try our best!