Good morning Vietnam....! It's bloody freezing and raining, lucky I bought my beanie!! We head out of Hanoi for today to Halong Bay, it's about 175km north west. Due to quality of roads it will be about a 4hr trip.

Thank god our driver is good cause the roads are busy and a little crazy. Out of Hanoi they are a little quieter. It's a single lane road where most motor bikes keep far right (they drive on right side here), then slow vehicles then anything else overtakes when able to. Overtaking is usually preceded by lots of beeping to announce that others should get the hell out of your way! Lots of school aged children are around at times riding their bikes along with the traffic. Most seem unfazed! The road is also lined with the Vietnamese flag of red with a yellow star and also the communist flag. Even the signs for shops are red and yellow. I'm sensing a theme....

We arrive in Halong Bay which is a busy tourist port and even in the miserable weather lots if people are boarding a boat to cruise the bay. The bay is dotted with hundreds of limestone rock formations that rise spectacularly out of the blue of the bay. Today the cliffs are drenched in mist and it's all looking very gloomy! But beautiful all the same, I can't imagine how nice in summer.

We stop at a cave which has three rooms all with different stalactites and stalagmites. Some look like phallic symbols others like animals or faces. A few too many rocks later we headed back to the boat. There were some monkeys hanging around near the boat which made it interesting (and no, I don't mean the rest of the tourists)!

There are also a number of floating villages in the bay, they make their living fishing and chasing tourist boats to sell their wares (snacks, drinks, smokes) and come right up to the side of the boat.

The food on the boat was amazing, tried crab for the first time and there were prawns, whole baked fish and much more. Really enjoyed it!

The boat anchors just before we go to the cave and remains there the entire night.

After dinner, we played cards and Paap and I decided to be a not silly and play on characters. Things like gangster rappers, Spaniards, Sven from Sweden etc. and it made it quite fun! Most of the group were not into this as much as we were but laughed at us instead. A few beers later and time for sleep....