Yo Ho me hearties - Yo Ho! We are back from our cruise in Halong bay and have so much to write about. This place is amazing, and Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been! I'm so glad everyone's enjoying reading about our adventures, it's fun to write it all down so we don't forget a second in our busy, busy schedule! Also, Mum stop worrying missus, we're fine and dandy, having the most amazing time ever and we promise faithfully never to get on a motorcycle or buy any carving etc which may be dodgy (not only for that very small, tiny chance that it is dodgy, because it is a very small chance, but because we simply do not have the baggage space!) So, sleep easy lovely!

So, I left off last time when we were having a breather in our hotel in Hanoi, it had been a busy, hot day with a very early start and that was exhausting when there is so much going on. After a revitalising chill at the hotel we headed out once more into the throng and decided to search out some food. We ended up eating outside in a restaurant on the lake side. T'was very pretty to sit and watch the lights bounce off the lake and eat yummy French Vietnamese food and local beer, the contrast is fairly immense, the lake is peaceful and calm and yet ringed completely by a busy road, so our serenity was accompanied by harmonies of the rumble of motorbike engines and the constant 'beep, beeping' of horns. We headed back to the hotel after a stroll round the lake as we were being picked up by our tour guide for the Halong Bay cruise early doors at 8am the next morning.

Now I know that no-one will feel any pity for us at all, and we certainly don't deserve it, but our busy itinerary means that sleep is something we haven't had much of since arrival, it has been lots of early starts and loooooong days. So, the next morning we sold our souls to the gods of sleep rather than those of hunger and skipped breakfast for a precious extra hour in bed. We waited for the guide in the lobby, watching two chickens that had made a bid for freedom and were clucking around outside. We decided that their time was probably limited, because if the cook didn't catch up with them then we assume a motorcycle or moped probably would! Finally, at 8.30am the minibus wound its way down our chaotic little street and picked us and another family up and hustled us into the van so we could get going. The journey from Hanoi to Halong city, where the port is, lasts about 3hrs. Our guide Tom was a cheerful chappy who pointed out sites to us as we went and explained the itinerary for the day. He was particularly excited to share with us that there is a karaoke machine on board and bless him he looked crestfallen when the level of enthusiasm for that was somewhat lacking! The driver was smiley, but silent as he headed out to the country - even stopping to clear off the windows (on the motorway no less!) when we couldn't see out and he did a sterling job bribing the toll booth guy so he could skip the queue! As we drove we watched the drizzly skies hopefully as the weather in North Vietnam has been a lot cooler than expected (mid to late 20's so not that cool!) and that's because it's 'winter' here (it will get warmer as we move down south). The day we set off to the bay was drizzly and smoggy with little hope of the sunshine chasing the cloud away. Still we lived in hope that the weather during the cruise would hold out and that it wouldn't be too foggy.

The roads around here are not only crowded and somewhat rule free (but surprisingly slow as most people drive about 40k an hour!) but they are also missing a fair few chunks which made for a bouncy ride down to Halong (we've decided that Auntie Dot should never come to Vietnam, the driving would drive her to despair!) We were a mixed bag of cultures and ages in the minivan, we had Aussies, brits, French Canadians and we were fairly quiet on the way down after our early start. The main topics of conversation were limited to pointing out the overloaded motorbikes which trundled past with seemingly the world and his wife strapped on the back (New things I have seen on a motorbike today include - a six ft by 2ft mirror, a woman with net bags filled with a trillion bouncy balls, a hat stand(!) and a guy with a heap of helium balloons!) We made up about half the group on our boat (there was 32 in total) and we were to meet the other half at the harbour. Halfway we had a break at the 'Vietnamese' service area which was pretty touristy with a tonne of 'souvenirs' on offer (Mum - we just bought a coffee each - promise xx!). The best offer we thought was a bottle of the infamous snake venom wine which came complete with a snake coiled at the bottom of the bottle and a larger scorpion (we assume they were dead but you never know) shoved into the fluorescent yellow liquid for good measure! One of the American guys in the boat was keen to partake in this treat as he had heard that it could cure baldness (but a possible side effect was impotence so you win some, you lose some!), having learnt my lesson with Asian liqueurs after the whole rice wine vs longhouse ladder events of my past we were happy to leave him debating whether to partake.

A bouncy hour and a half later we pulled into the busy, chaotic port where the junks set off. Now to many (and to me before I went on one) the term 'junk' boat doesn't inspire much confidence but believe me these boats were something else (there's a pic of one in Halong Bay with the blog!). There were hundreds of the boats in harbour, all waiting for people to board, Tom scuttled off and got us sorted with tickets and stuff and found our captain (complete with pristine white uniform and peaked cap!) and then we were led into the harbour steps to get on the tender which would take us to the junk. Now each boat has a tender (e.g. smaller boat!) and there was a fair amount of boat rage between the drivers as they jostled for space in front to the harbour steps.

A short boat ride later we arrived at our boats and straight into the pirates of the Caribbean. The boats are made of dark wood and have intricate carvings everywhere, there are staircases leading from the cabins up to the dining room where we were served amazing and extensive meals on a very regular basis! The cabins were beautiful, all ensuite with time showers tucked into the nooks and crannies and rich beautiful fabrics. The boat had 4 floors, the top two had an outside but covered bar area and then there was a sun deck at the top of the boat. After welcome drinks and exploration of the cabin we were off into the famed bay. Now Halong is called Halong because legend has it that a dragon came down to help them fight something or other (bit sketchy on the details) and something it did when it was here created these amazing rock like formations along the bay, there are over 3,000 of these in the bay and it is so beautiful cruising along seeing the amazing scenery (while having a tiger beer!). The weather held off and though it was overcast it was fairly clear with the only little bit of mist swirling around the bottom of the rocks which only added to the atmosphere and beauty.

We were so lucky with the people on the boat, we were soon having a right laugh and we were sat with another couple of couples for meals and we all had lots to talk about and got on really well (none of this stilted awkwardness you can get on tours - in fact we have just come back from dinner in Hanoi with Andrew & Rhiannon, a couple we met on the boat) So we were a merry party as we would our way into the bay heading towards the caves that we were to visit. Now there are lots of caves in these islands and they imagine there are many more undiscovered, the caves have been used throughout history to store weapons, hide pirates and all other stories and legends. The one we went to was called the 'surprise' cave and it was all decked out with atmospheric lights and stairs so no proper caving (thankfully as we were still a little tender up until today!) The immense stalagmites and stalactites were amazing (some will have taken at least a million years to form!) and we wound our way from cavern to cavern, petting the tortoise like (they love their tortoises here!) formation, which you can make a wish on if you leave him a little amount of dong (about 5,000 - 17p!) and trying to spot the animals that Tom pointed out to us. They we got to the 'surprise' part of the cave which was what Tom diplomatically referred to as a finger sticking out of the rockface at a slant with some bulbous formations at its base, now maybe Tom was trying to be delicate or even a little coy, but believe me that thing did not look like a finger pointing towards the exit of the cave, maybe it's my dirty mind but I think it looked rather more like another part of the anatomy!

After the cave we were given the option to kayak around the bay and obviously you can't say no to a chance like that. We got the kayaks at the floating villages (some people spend their entire lives on the water and never live on dry land) As we waited ladies (the men never seem to work here!) used their whole body strength to propel their boats towards us offering the opportunity to buy food, drinks and cigarettes (not tempting when pringles have a water mark!). Kayaking was amazing, we were allowed to go off and explore and we found some mini caves (it's not a good idea to go right into them as the currents can be unpredictable inside) so we floated past the entrance and peered in, often there are shrines set up in there and there is ancient graffiti on the walls said to be left by pirates and prisoners (some was marked 1812, but I'm dubious - as I am pretty sure magic markers weren't about at that point!) Being so close to the foot of these amazing rocks was something else and it was well worth the arm work out!

After kayaking we headed back to the boat, had welcome drinks before leaping off the front of the boat (woohoo!) to go for a swim in the cool, turquoise waters. Only a few of us swam, I was the only girly to take the plunge (had to wear my proper swimming costume as envisaged losing a bikini when jumping from the bow of the boat!) That water was surprisingly warm, incredibly calm but hellish salty and we came out feeling a bit like tuna fish fresh from a tin of brine. After quick showers we had the most amazing dinner, a billion courses of the most amazing seafood and the bestest carved vegetables (we had whole vases of flowers made from carrots and cucumber!), the beer flowed constantly and glasses were forever being topped up so we were a happy gang and the guys from the US got very excited about there being a karaoke and insisted it was put on immediately. There started the funniest few hours ever, people crucified classic hits, murdered ballads and had to wrestle the microphone off Tom the tour guide as he did song after song in English and Vietnamese. Highlights included an Aussie Dad attempting a Vietnamese song and then making up rude words to it and getting into trouble when his wife heard him after she came back from the loo! The Belgium guy who stood up and said, 'this won't be good, I'm not very good at English' and then attempted tutti frutti, the same Belgian guy and his mate attempting a French song (they didn't speak French either!) Lee putting in a cracking performance with Piano Man (yes that's right - Lee sang karaoke and I have the video evidence to prove it!) and finally the Aussie lad who didn't know the tune to Waterloo so just shouted every word at the top of his lungs. Good times indeed! After karaoke finished a few of us retired to the sun deck with beers and chatted the night away. During the night when we were sat there, there was the most amazing electrical storm (despite the huge thunderstorm the sea remained as calm as calm can be!) Immense rumbling thunder and spectacular fork and sheet lightening lit up the skies while we gazed in amazement and wished we had a better camera! We finally retired to bed at 2am (quite funny walking past the captain's bedroom and seeing him and all the crew sat in their underpants watching soccer!) We promptly got up again at 7am for the 7.30am breakfast. We spent the next few hours somewhat stranded as the engine had broken - but none of us were particularly bothered by such an engine failure cos a) we weren't sinking, b) there was still beer in the fridge and c) if I was going to be stranded anywhere then I choose Halong Bay. We floated while they mended and just took in the scenery and peacefulness before returning to the chaos of Hanoi.

The journey back was a bouncy and long, but we arrived back to our snazzy hotel (I am writing this from our private computer and internet in our room!) We met up with Rhiannon and Andrew who we met on the boat for dinner in the old quarter and I had the most amazing Vietnamese dish local to Hanoi. Its snake head fish served in a broth that comes out in a frying pan over a bucket filled with hot charcoal. I then had a plate with fresh spring onions and dill with noodles and peanuts. I had to add the veg to the broth, cook it for a little bit then assemble it in the bowl and it was the nicest food I have ever, ever, ever eaten! (and in total for four of us with two courses each and two beers it was a grand total of 24 quid!

So now, full to the brim of delicious food and super tired with a taxi coming at 4am to take us to the airport to fly to Hue, I'm going to sign off! I'll update in the next couple of days on Hue and then Hoi An where we go on Friday. Sorry to have gone on so long with this blog but I want to get as much down in words as possible so I can't forget anything!

Huge, big hugs to you all

Love Pirates Kat & Lee