On a Boat

So folks it's yet again been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and update this blog. Vietnam has been hit hard with the wifi stick too so I've been keeping connected through my itouch, which is notoriously difficult to type on so I must admit I've yet again left the blog for a bit too long. Sorry blog.

So we're about to enter the final week, the last few have gone by in such a blur it's amazing to think how much we've done, seen and the people we've met. It all started when we left Hoi Ann for Hanoi, after a dreaded night bus, in which I ended up next to a drunk Vietnamese man who took up so much space I ended up sleeping on the floor (not best pleased) we arrived in Hanoi around 7am and were whisked off to a guesthouse owned by a really lovely Vietnamese family. We had to wait a while for a room, as it was so early other guests hadn't checked oout and we couldn't view the room etc etc so whilst we waited Hien talked us through their tour packages for Halong Bay and Sapa, two places we knew we wanted to visit. 1 hour and several sweet coffees later we had an entire week booked up and planned thanks to Hien's expertise and persuasive talk. And the 4 coffees I drunk.

Anyway, 8am the next day we were picked up and taken to Halong City to board our junk boat setting sail for Halong Bay, a beautiful archipeligo of islands off the north coast of Vietnam. Here's a few prime shots:

We'd paid a bit more for a deluxe boat which turned out to be brilliant, although we were the youngest people on the boat, many of the others were older couples or old polish people (who were determined not to talk to anyone else on the boat, EVER). We ended up befriending a hilarious German lady named Evie who introduced herself and was quick to mention that she thought "all Germans are very rude". Priceless. We also met a lovely Canadian couple called Jessie and Marc, who added to my belief that canadians are such a good bunch of people. I know you can't really generalise people according to their nationality, but every canadian we've met since we've been travelling have been amazing. The first day and night were spent kayaking, visiting various island caves and drinking and eating. The food was absolutely amazing, fresh seafood everyday and massive portions. It was served in a buffet style so it was easy to share and what not. The boat staff tried to get us to do kareoke but suprisingly no one wanted to have a go so after a few glasses of local wine everyone headed to bed. The sea was so calm so there were no problems sleeping that night in our posh deluxe cabin.

The next day we left the boat at Cat Ba island and joined another group on the not-so-deluxe boat next door. There were 27 of us in total (our guide made a point of telling us this) and we were introduced to our tour guide for the next day, Mr Ice T. I can't remember why he was called this but everyone in asia seems to have some sort of hilarious name. We went to Cat Ba National Park and embarked upon a 5km bike ride to a nearby hospital cave. During the war it was used by Vietnamese troops to treat their wounded as Cat Ba island was quite heavily bombed. It was really eerie and absolutely massive, it even included it's own indoor swimming pool and cinema. The bike ride was really laid back, there was an assortment of old city bikes and new mountain bikes and despite Mr Ice T telling us we could only cycle 2 side by side we managed about 6 without him minding. Back at the minibus we drove to the port and took a boat to Monkey Island, where we would be spending our second night. It was beautiful, and completely deserted except for our bungalows so we were really lucky. The sun was out, the sand was white and we soon settled on some loungers and found ourselves sipping cocktails. Started talking to two Australian boys who, VERY weirdly happened to have lived in Bath for a year in 2006. Very very small world seeing as not a lot of people you meet out here have heard of Bath anyway. This led to more cocktails and some beer before we were decided to go with Mr T for a "small trek" across the island to find the monkeys. We wore flip flops and "small trek" actually resembled a hardcore rockclimb up the island. But thankfully we eventually found the monkeys so it was worth it. Except one of the monkeys bit someone, so that was a tad harsh. The evening was spent drinking local beer and playing drinking games until the early hours, the other boat was full of backpackers our age so we could let loose a bit more.

Saturday morning- we got picked up quite early and started our long journey back to Hanoi. It included boat + minibus + another boat + coach and once back in Hanoi we boarded the night bus to Sapa, but that's another post! Check back for more updates, soon to fly to China and for the adventure to be over (sob sob).