We are back in Hanoi at the Ritz after our 2 nights at Halong Bay.

We had opted to go for a 3 day/2 night tour that took you to Halong Bay from Hanoi in a mini bus, took you out on a boat called a junk where we would sail/kayak/swim around the bay and go on one of the islands. It cost in total $69, so GBP30 and that included all our meals, a night on the boat and a night in a hotel on Cat Ba Island at the far end of the bay.

Halong Bay is made up of thousands of little islands dotted around and creates a really calm stretch of water for a few kilometers between the land and the sea. It is a real maze of islands that seem impossible to navigate through, but our guides seemed to have no trouble.

There were about 13 people on the tour, but it turned out only 4 of us were doing the 3 day/2 night option, and only 6 of us were to spend the night on the boat. This turned out to be a blessing because that meant the annoying group of 7 Germans who were with us were only staying the day!

Luch was good but we were made to sit at a table on our own with one other girl, as we had paid the 'Standard' rate! This meant we got 'Good' food, while they got 'Excellent' food according to the brochure. It turned out that we got exactly the same food except for some fried fish that they had to share between all 10 of them and so got one bite each. We felt quite smug as they had paid nearly $20 extra! The other benefit of going deluxe was that your room on the boat came with air-con. It was however, quite cold that night so we wouldn't have needed it even if we'd had it...another reason to feel smug!!

After lunch they took us out to an island that had a huge cavern inside it. Apparently these islands used to be under water and were formed from volcanic activity, so water had been eating away at the inside of some of the islands leaving some pretty impressive stalagmites and stalagtites. It did however seem to be a stop for all tour groups in Halong Bay and so there was a constant stream of boats similar to ours docking and people filing through, meaning the cave was crammed full of tourists, which wasn't ideal.

After this we sailed around the islands for a while, stopping to let some of the germans kayak, before meeting another boat that took them back to the harbour. It was much more peaceful once they had left and it was much easier to talk to the smaller group that was left, so it was more fun. We were with 2 Austrian girls, a Columbian girl and an American guy.

I was however, fairly anti-social because I was really into my book: The Secret Histort by Donna Tartt. Emma had to moan at me a bit to get me to make conversation with the people we were going to be spending the night with. Oops...it is a very good book though if anyone is looking for something to read?!

We toodled round more of the bay until we got to a floating village where we were given the opportunity to kayak. The others did but we felt a bit kayaked out after doing it in Argentina and New Zealand so we stayed on board and drank beer! The lazy option! There are whole communities of people living in these floating villages dotted around the bay, making a living from fishing and selling things to tourist boats.

After this we moved round to a quieter bay for dinner, which was surprisingly similar to what we had for lunch...this time the 'Deluxe' customers had nothing different from us, just a larger quantity. The guide told us that there was to be karaoke after dinner as 'entertainment' if we wanted it. The fear on our faces was quite funny but then he gave the impression that it was optional...unfortunately this was not the case!!

The Vietnamese guys; our guide, the cook, the captain and the cabin boy (i'm guessing that's what he was anyway) turned it on and started singing very badly a load of Vietnamese songs. They then decided we had to have a go and forced the microphone into Charlie's hands, the American guy who was with us. He had to sing a song he didn't know the words to that the Captain had picked. It then became evident that the captain had lined up a load of songs for each of us to sing! Emma looked like she could to cry at the thought of having to sing, and the others were frantically looking for a way to get out of it...there was none! When one person finished they shoved the mic into someone elses hands and put on some god awful song that we didn't know! I decided to choose some songs that people would actually know the words to after myself having to sing Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry, of which I only knew the chorus! It's a bloody long song when you're having to sing it yourself on a boat in Vietnam, infront of a group of near total strangers!!

Now, I see karaoke as being a bit of a jokey thing that people do when they've had a few beers to give them some Dutch courage. The last time I did karaoke was in Malia, when I sang along to Spice Girls with Chris, Steve and Jon! In Vietnam however, it seems to be taken rather seriously. Now given that the captain seemed rather annoyed if someone didn't know the words or didn't seem to be putting the required amount of effort in, and added to that, we couldn't afford to drink much more than a couple of beers, it was a fairly agonising experience! It also seemed that as I had selected some songs for people to sing, the captain thought I was very keen and had selected them all for myself! Not good as I had picked a few Beatles songs that are actually in a very high key! I managed to palm off a few but had to sing Help! (how true that was) and Your Song by Elton John. This Emma very meanly videoed! I did have to do a few extra to save Emma as there was no way she was going to sing, it's pretty much her worst nightmare!

When it had gone on for over an hour we said enough is enough and forced them to take back the mic and turn it down so we could play cards. They then proceeded to carry on singing for at least another hour and a half while we played and showed no signs of shutting up. We were relieved when, after we had gone down to bed, they finally shut the thing off.

We were not in for an easy nights sleep though, because as Emma was doing her teeth in the bathroom I heard a short, sharp yell of "CRAIG!!!!! THERE"S A COCKROACH IN HERE!!!!"........"KILL IT"......followed by a loud scream as I informed her it was trying to get back in with her in the bathroom!! They move seriously fast when they want to, and it was huge! A good inch and a half long, maybe 2. I was armed with a flip flop and managed to flick it out the door and over the side of the boat. It turned out Emma hadn't been able to shut the bathroom door properly because she had positioned herself ontop of the toilet to escape this horrific beast!! I then had to shake out everything in the room, the curtains, the bedding, our clothes etc etc before she would emerge. There was then no way we were going to get to sleep for a while so we watched a couple of episodes of the Ewan McGregor bike trip around the world from London to New York that i'd put on her ipod in NZ.

It wasn't a bad nights sleep after that though, it was so calm you wouldn't know you were in a boat really, except the generator near our heads, but you get used to that. Breakfast was at 8am!! Then we went off for a sail to Cat Ba Island where we cycled a 15km round trip to a little village and back to the boat. It was a nice bike ride with impressive scenery and rice paddies all around. Emma only knows this from looking at my photos though as she claims she was concentrating very hard on not falling off or crashing, so didn't have time to look up very often! She did very well though...it got us thinking that we should go on some bike rides when we get home, as it's much more fun than jogging...we'll see anyway.

It was very hot and so when we made it back to the boat we were pretty tired. Luckily we had a very relaxing afternoon reading on deck before kayaking for a bit. The karsts look even more impressive from down on the water, and a lot of them are covered in jungle. After our little jaunt in the kayak it was back on the boat and headed for Cat Ba town to spend the night in a hotel.

The hotel was nice enough but the town was pretty horrible. Lots of Vietnemese summer there apparently from Hanoi, and as it's off season now there was a lot of building work going on. We had dinner in the hotel, once again having to sit separately from the other girls in the group, while they had their "deluxe" meal, again exactly the same, just a little bit more!

After dinner we went for a wander to the harbour front, had a beer, then headed back to the hotel via a supermarket to get something to drink. I headed straight for the wine section as Emma said she was beered out, but Emma decided Vietnamese Rice Vodka was a better plan! I don't think she feels that was the best plan she's ever had today! It did however, help to make Borat seem funnier than when I watched it sober, so something good came out of it. Not sure we'll be drinking the rest of the bottle though. It did only cost about 80p so not the end of the world. We also played cards and Yahtzee, both of which I managed to lose! I'm going to search for some new games I think...if anyone knows any good 2 player card games please let me know. Emma beats me at "S**thead" all the time!

The journey back to Hanoi was not one of the best we've had. It consisted of cramming onto a rickety old bus for half an hour to the harbour, then getting on the boat to take us back to the mainland. A new tour group were already on the boat and they turned out to be the most annoying American's we've come across yet, which is saying something! They spent 2 hours talking about all the alcohol they've ever drunk in their lives and what "totally stupid" things it made them do. We then got back to the mainland earlier than planned, half 10, but got taken to the hotel for lunch anyway! This was bad enough, as we'd only just had breakfast, but we had to sit with these loud, arrogant, boring people for the whole meal while they talked about massages with "happy endings", ex-girlfriends, girls in general and a lot more rubbish besides!

We escaped as quickly as we could to go downstairs and finish our books, while we waited an hour for the bus to leave. 4 hours later, after the american's had talked non-stop about college American Football, (not even the professional game!), and we got dropped back at out hotel. A bit of space again, in our own room! We have since been out to dinner, had a coffee, and now here we are.

We're going to get up early and do some cultural things tomorrow, before getting the sleeper bus South to Hue, our next stop, in the evening.

I was very relieved to see I beat Emma on the fantasy football...it came down to the last day of the season though!! Top 10 finish in her debut season, not bad going. Anyway, we are turning over a new leaf and starting the days at a decent hour so we can make the most of them from now on, so it's off to bed at 9:30pm!! Sure we'll watch a bad film or something first though.

Hope Michael had a good birthday celebration, and that everyone's enjoying the sunshine!

Lots of love, Craig and Emma xxxxxxxx