Day 25 - An early wake up for Ti Chi at 06:30 on the top deck. About 8 of us managed to drag ourselves out of bed to take part. A great way to start the day, as the sun rose between the islands. After the Ti Chi class it was down for breakfast which again was another feast. Every time we ate a piece of toast it was refilled along with eggs, salad, the list goes on! With two people missing from our table, after a while staring at the two eggs left I decided they weren't gonna make it. Bloomin typical that as I had the last mouthful, they emerged from their cabin!! Not a word was said so they are none the wiser.

After breakfast it was a quick change as we had the choice to either climb one of the islands to get a great view from the top or go kayaking around the islands and through caves. After all the walking we'd done on this holiday, there was really only one option. We jumped into the kayak, the photographer at the front and the engine room at the back! We headed for a cave we could see, which led to another bay, inaccessible by the cruise boats. What an amazing place, so peaceful and we just floated around taking in the views with David Bellamy snapping away at the front. A bit of a cruise around where the boat was moored including a crows nest that we had to quickly back away from. Back on board we had a chance to just lie on the top deck taking in the views as we started the cruise back to the bay. As the weather was so nice it was really good to just sit and watch the islands as we float by. Alice at this point is churning out the pages of Jane Eyre.

Back at the bay at about 11am and it was time for lunch before we disembarked. Needless to say it was a 7 course meal again and finished the trip off nicely. Then came the dreaded moment, time to pay for the drinks we had last night and this morning on board. Not too bad, only $32.

We jumped off the boat and onto the tender to take us ashore before getting on the bus for another 3.5 hour trip back to Hanoi. A very quiet bus ride to begin with as lots of people slept whilst we cracked on with Jane Eyre and the series of Family Guy. Guess who was doing what!!

With a numb bum we were back in Hanoi. We were the first to be dropped off which was good and then back to the hotel. We checked in again and we were given a free upgrade (seems to happen a lot to us for some reason). We were given a huge room with one double and two single beds with a cathedral view. The shower is almost as big as our whole house! Just a shame we are leaving so early in the morning to catch a flight to Luang Prabang back across the border in Laos.

A quick sit down and then it was out to do some shopping for presents for people and then for some dinner. A bit of strategic haggling, using the excuse that is all the money we have left as we leave tomorrow, take it or leave it seemed to work a treat. On route to dinner we saw an ice cream shop so we HAD to stop and have a sundae to share. Can't believe we can even contemplate food after the last two days but hey ho!

As the meal we had two nights ago at Quan An Ngon was so nice we decided to go back there. We were sat at a table with very small benches close to the ground so a touch difficult getting in and out! The starter arrived, yes, more spring rolls but shrimp this time. After about two mouthfuls, our mains arrived so our table filled up rather quickly making us look like real fatties (pipe down hockey lads!). A bit of a stroll back to the hotel via the cake shop where we had a small piece each and up to our palace looking straight over the cathedral. Sorted out the US dollars we needed for our visas into Laos tomorrow which was good and left us with a little bit of Vietnamese Dong to take to the airport.