The next part of our journey took us to one of 3 UNESCO world heritage sites in Vietnam - Ha long bay. The bay is comprised of thousands of limestone islands in an area of roughly 2000 square kilometres. Its fair to say it was impressive. On arrival we were taken to our boat, our home for the first night. The rooms were more than pleasant with en-suites and a nice dining room upstairs where we were given lunch of typical Vietnamese fare (lots more tofu!) and headed off on our first excursion to a newly-discovered cave.

The cave inside was vast, and pretty impressive. The guide was keen to show us bits of rock that somewhat resemble living things - a snake, or an eagles wings for example. Im not sure it was entirely necessary as the cave in itself was nice enough. There were also coloured lights thrown in almost at random and an artificial water fountain which cheapened the experience I felt. We then had a nice 2 hour cruise between all the islands to the place we would be mooring for the evening. The scenery was amazing and even though it is a tourist trap, we felt quite isolated due to the size of the place. After mooring we got a chance to swim and had dinner, after which was karaoke. Like most typical Brits, before singing, the one prerequisite was to get hammered, which I feel I did with enthusiasm. There were 4 groups of us and we found it worked well if the preceding group chose your song, leaving me with modern classics such as 'hit me baby one more time' and 'wannabe'.

The next morning we headed to cat ba island, the largest of the islands in the bay for a spot of 'trekking' (much was paved so i'm calling it a walk, although it was still difficult in places). It was a 2 and a half hour round trip to the top of one of the tallest, rain-forested hills, upon which was a rusty metal tower about 60m-ish high, with a rickety viewing platform on top. Only once we got to the bottom did we read the 'do not climb' sign, despite every person there doing it! After a faster descent (where bumble decided she wanted to leave several leaving presents to the national park - the contents of her stomach) we headed to the monkey island resort by bus/boat.

Monkey island was a beautiful beach resort, so-called due to the islands permanent inhabitants - some monkeys. We stayed in small huts just on the beach, with the bar and games room overlooking the sea. The afternoon was spent chilling, playing volleyball and generally doing beachy stuff. After a 'BBQ' in the evening (where my vegetarian option was oil and a few noodles) we enjoyed some beers on the beach, admiring the scenery.

As mentioned earlier Ha long bay is quite touristy and justifiably so. It was beautiful. The feeling of sailing between thousands of islands in the sun is amazing and I think everyone who visits Vietnam should go. We went through central backpackers hostel in hanoi, and it was very well organised, and very comfortable. For 105 USD the trip was actually amazing value for money considering how nice the accommodation was. This was definitely a highlight of the trip so far, and hopefully you're all jealous!