After some deliberation and seeking out much advice we had booked our trip to Halong Bay. A tourist mecca that we had been warned about, therefore we opted for the route less travelled, a boat trip from a different town, through halong bay, to an Eco island where we would spend the night.

It had been raining in Hanoi for the past 4 days and so we held our breath that it would improve for our boat trip. Fortunately it did and there was not a cloud in the sky as we set off. The scenery was more impressive than either of us expected and because of the trip we'd chosen we barely saw another living soul (except for the local fishermen) the entire time. It was a very lazy morning spent on the top of the boat, baking in the sun, having a few beers and watching the huge islands with native, unspoilt jungle pass us by. In the afternoon we went on a kayak trip to explore some of the caves, cracks and crevices up close. Our kayaks were retro to say the least and the paddles were bent in every direction imaginable making it a less than streamline experience. Fortunately speed was not something we needed and so we sat back and enjoyed the leisurely pace.

As the sun was setting we arrived at our private island for the night with a spectacular view of the more populated Catbar Island, with its beachfront hotels and skyscrapers, across the water. We had booked a bunk in a dorm which turned out to be a double bed in a three room bungalow on the sea front. That evening we enjoyed a seafood feast, a few drinks and chats with the other members of the group.

The following day we were woken at 8am by our guide banging on the window. By the time we had opened the door to find out what all the hub-bub was about he had gone. We had been looking forward to a lie in as we had nothing to do until midday and breakfast didn't finish until 10.30. However, now awake, we got dressed and headed over for brekkie. Claire was less than amused by the rude awakening and made her feelings very clear to the guide, who had been a little rude the day before but never enough to be that big a deal, just in a doesn't speak English very well (which isn't his fault it's yours) and likes being in charge kind of way. In fact he would even put his hand in people's faces if he felt their question was a silly one (eg how long is this part of the boat trip). As a quick example, the night before when he had been going around each dinner table letting people know the plans for the following day he had concluded with "you must be on time or else I will be very angry". We all laughed at, what we assumed, was a joke. However a quick look at his face told us he was deadly serious and he then repeated what he had said as though he were a teacher talking to naughty children. The only response Greg could could think of was to very sternly reply "well if you're late I'M going to be very angry as well". "I'm never late" was his reply as he walked off. Anyway back to breakfast, and when Claire confronted our guide about the reason for banging on the window his response was that he wanted to make sure we all had a fresh breakfast. Seems reasonable but Claire argued that she was an adult and if she wanted to sleep in and miss breakfast altogether that was her decision, not his. Again he just walked away.

Fortunately the guide was not around enough to spoil the trip, it's just whenever he was the atmosphere became a little tense. After breakfast we spent a lazy morning on the deserted beach, reading and relaxing, before getting the boat back to the mainland. It was the relaxing trip we were in need of after several weeks on the go.

Fortunately our bus journey back to Hanoi was not uneventful, thanks to our guide. After the first toilet stop he confronted a couple of Eastern European people as to why they were on his bus. His memory must be poor because we had all seen them be directed onto the bus by him (a few people from another group had joined our bus for space reasons), he had confirmed they were meant to be there when they had double checked, and when they tried to make sure a third time with him, he'd simply put his hand up to their face...obviously he considered it a silly question. Anyway, he was getting very angry with this couple who, speaking poor English themselves, were finding it hard to explain their position in English to someone who also spoke very poor English. When he started shouting (actually shouting not just heated words) at them that they didn't even care they were on the wrong bus Greg had reached boiling point and shouted back that they didn't understand what the problem was as he had told them several times to get on this bus. There were murmurs of agreement from the rest of the bus and, as was his custom, the guide stomped away. He then spent the next half an hour yelling at someone down the phone before pulling our bus, and another bus over on a three lane highway and frog marching the couple off the bus. He was obviously trying to put them on the second bus. A few minutes later the couple and the guide returned to our bus, the couple looking thoroughly perplexed. Apparently the driver of the other bus thought our guide was being ridiculous.

Once back in Hanoi the guide thanked us all for coming on the trip and said there were free beers back at the company centre for us all. For some reason none of us were in the mood.