No good trip is complete without a big fuss at the start (At least with the McCosker family holidays, it usually gives us something to laugh about later though, here it's just an unrelentless stream of ribbing). This morning it was a mixture of phones going flat during the night so the alarm didn't go off, and an anonymous person using the last of the toilet paper so when the last person to use it in the morning ran out after about 4 squares. An awkward start to one of the best tours we have done so far...

We were in for a 3 hour bus ride to get the journey started, and one of the best things we learnt was that the hotel staff thought we must have been VIP's to have a room in thier hotel whilst spending the night floating on the green waters of Halong Bay. Which obviously, we are.

The amazement of the trip didn't stop there though, because Karina (who detests pork) and Geoff (who equally detests fish), decided that they both actually love both of them and one of the strangest things I've heard so far was Geoff saying "Pass the fish".

The bus ride this time was considerable better and we spent time reading, chatting, and trying to catch a photo of a buffalo being used to tend the rice fields. We also stopped off at another handi-capped handi-crafts store, where this time they predominately made statues and figures from marble, although there was also a large collection of silk scarfs, clothes, and shiny jewelery.

With TightClench McCosker in desparate need of a happy house from his mornings poison water we rocked up in Halong City ready to board our big piece of Junk and float away. (The boats used by tourists to cruise the bay are called Junks. They are really quite nice with lovely cabins, resturant, and sun deck, and inside was completely airconditioned).

We boarded hungry and excited to be greeted with an airconditioned resturant and a 9000 course lunch that included prawns, clams, crab, fish, beef, pork, chicken, blah, blah, blah you get the point. It was a big meal. It was delicious. And we were definately being treated like VIP's. And it wasn't just a simple crab or easily cooked fish, each meal was prepared differently with adventurous flavours. Everything was washed down with a complementry local wine and several beers as well.

We cruised out through hundreds of the limestone islands and found our first destination, a huge natural cave that was a popular spot for tourists. We also found that just because we were away from the city didn't mean that the merchants would leave us alone, Ohhh Noo.. That's right, in the middle of the ocean, with unhabitible islands all around, they use little boat shops so they can hassle people while they float past on their junks.

After the cave, which was only a couple of hundreds of steps to get around, we were taken to Dao Titop Beach, which was only small and covered the base of one of the islands, but with more people on it than Yeppoon Beach would get in a month. One group of rowdy asian tourists beckoned at the big strong white boys to join their tug-of-war game, which we did, and then we won that round for them, only to have the rope snap on the next try after even more people had joined. Karina "Longstride" Voss was determined to march up the steep stairs to the lookout at the top, which was worth it, but then the leg shakes kicked in after a day of hot walking and stair climbing.

It was nice to finally jump into the warm water for a swim and a frolick. Ben "HappyPants" Dinsy was the first to make his immediate surroundings his "Happy Place", although he denies it THE FACE says it all. After warming the waters a little more he decided the tour guide needed a good chatting up and went to keep her company. We also learnt that Karina, Geoff, and Bully are like sinkers in the water, they couldn't lay back and float around like others. The activities on the beach raged on even though we broke the tug-of-war rope. They played some chili between the legs game, (get the peice of chili into a bucket at the end without using your hands, two person sack races, and a game of soccer.

Back on the boat and we were deciding how to approach the following evening. PartyBoy Voss wanted to see how many beers we could have and how long we could stay up before being told to go to bed. We also made a mission of drinking the boat out of beer, but when we hit our goal the paddled over to another boat to resupply, and each beer after was a bitter disappointment. We did enjoy laying on the front of the boat watching the many other boats moored around us though. We also watched and ignored as the floating merchants called out from their floating boards of wood just double checking that we didn't want to buy their goods (which were the same as every single other tourist area in Vietnam, but probably a bit wetter).

Overall it was a great day. The views from the boat were amazing and it was very relaxing sun bathing on the sun deck watching the islands drift by on either side. The dinner was just a exceptional as the lunch, if not more so. It was grilled prawns, fresh crabs, pork and beef meatballs, succulant fish, and more! Highly recommended for the overnight trip, a day trip just would not suffice.