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Breakfast time: 7am; 2 x grumpy eaters. Id tried to have a shower but the water was cold, Edd had enquired and the guide had said they'd changed their generators over, so I’d probably tried to shower whilst they did that. This was was after the tour guide asked if he’d turned the tap both ways, he said 'no’ and then followed it with ‘don’t ask me stupid questions.’ Our tour guide seems to be in the habit of it. Edd and I weren’t convinced of the generator explanation, but we ate our (non vegetarian friendly) breakfast and went and tried again.
The water was still cold, but the water in the sink was hot. The situation was a mystery and all I wanted to do was wash my hair. The tour guide came in and checked and confirmed with Edd that he was right, the reply he got was ‘of course I am.’ They then spent the next 45 minutes trying to fix the shower. The left and it seemed to be right, but then 3 minutes into washing my hair it went cold again. Edd ran the tap in the sink, switched it off and the shower got hot again. He then stood there for the next 5 minutes switching the tap on and off until I was done. Bless him. We went and informed the captain again that it was still broken, and another Vietnamese man came in with a new head and a spanner. This seem to do the trick and they all left, with water all over the floor.
We’d been upgraded to the honeymoon suite, which had a balcony and this was great, but shoulder barging a door and cold showers was not on our to-do list.
We packed a day bag and transferred onto the small boat: it was taking us to a different ship we’d be spending the day on while the ship we were on was going back to the harbour to deposit and collect people. The operation was run like a well oiled machine.
We got to the day ship and all wanted to sit on the top deck to tan, but there weren’t enough chairs! Edd managed to get a bench and tan a bit, but this was far from comfortable or ideal. We cruised to Ba Tu Long Bay and got into kayaks again for another session of cave exploring. These kayaks were a bit more precarious than the ones from the day before, and we were paddling against the current; luckily the wilderness that surrounded us was breath taking.
We spotted quite a few jellyfish and weren’t sure whether they were dead or alive. I poked one with my oar and nothing happened, so we knew a couple of them had met their maker. We headed back after an hour of beautiful scenery and climbed back on the day ship, we were headed for another little excursion.
I’d liked to say we docked at the pearl farm, but it was more of a steer the boat towards the deck and hope for the best. They hadn’t dropped any anchors or attached the ship to anything, so as we were trying to climb off via the portable stairs, they were moving along the deck. Edd was highly annoyed at this horrendous job and criticised the lack of professionalism and safety employed.
The pearl farm was interested. Like a fish farm, but with oysters. Apparently it took 4 years to grow 1 pearl and the purity of the pearls depended on what was done with them. One of the guys in our group selected an oyster out of a tank and it was opened, in search of one of these treasures. It had a beautiful white pearl in it, but it also had a dark black mark on the one side; the conclusion was that this pearl would be used for face creams, as it was deemed imperfect for jewellery.
We got back on the ship the same way we came, on moving stairs, and had a delicious seafood lunch. If anything can be said for this trip, it’s that the food is amazing and there are huge amounts of it! We then all had a swim and then went upstairs to tan and read. I grabbed a towel and placed it on the floor of the deck, deciding against an uncomfortable wooden chair. I managed to fall asleep for a short while and Edd woke me up to tell me to turn over so I didn’t burn. We then both put heaps of sun cream on and repositioned myself on my back, ready to bronze the front.
The day ship made it’s way back to our original cruise liner and we all got off. We needed a shower (hot this time, preferably) and a drink. (They were too expensive on the ships, so we’d all outsourced). We got ready for dinner and the Melbourne girls came up for G&T’s.
We had another delicious dinner with the British couple and the Melbourne girls. The British couple tried their hand at squid fishing, the woman had managed to catch one and threw it back, even though she was sure it hadn’t survivied the journey. Edd and one of the Melbourne girls went to bed, leaving the British couple, the other Melbourne girl and me to play Jenga. We played a few rounds, wondering what the numbers on the sides of the blocks meant, and then also went to bed. It had been a lovely day.
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