Unfortunately, our second sleeper bus wasn't as pleasant as the first, as we were at the back. This isn't good for two reasons: one being you have to sleep next to someone else as there are three conjoined seats and two... The toilet is right next to you! Never the less, we survived and arrived into Hanoi at about 7 am. We shared a cab with a Dutch guy but soon realised the cab driver was taking the "long way" and when we arrived at the hotel we had booked it was the wrong one! We walked a little way along and found what we thought was ours, Little Haoni Hotel. The room seemed more basic than the website but we had been recommended it by two different travellers for rooms and tours so gave it the benefit of the doubt, unpacked a little, had showers, and headed to reception to book our trip to Halong Bay. We had done a whole evening of research on the area and knew exactly what we wanted, plus had checked out Trip Advisor reviews so we advised the guy who recommended a few itineraries. In the end we booked one we had seen online for $156 dollars which was perfect!

We spent the rest of the day mooching about in Hanoi, visiting the One Pillar Pagoda and the Temple of Literature, which was extra special as some local school kids were having their graduation pictures taken there. We also went to the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, but you can't see him in Rest during the months of November to February as he is Singapore having "work done"! Apparently, Madame Tussards gets him sometimes too for refurbishment! After this we headed back for a good nights sleep before the trip we had been looking forward to for so long.

Tuesday, 7.45, we head down for our breakfast which is included in our hotel price, we wait for half hour and eventually get taken somewhere else for it, around the corner. I'm getting a bit worried at this point as we were supposed to get picked up at 8! At 8.30 we're taken back to the hotel and eventually we get picked up on the smallest minibus I've ever seen. There's only one seat left but then they flip down another seat in the aisle which has practically nothing to lean back on, which then becomes my home for the next 3.5 hours. It's also worth mentioning that the roads aren't quite finished in more than a few places, so you can go from tarmac to gravel in seconds!

Around 12.15 we arrive on our boat, which isn't exactly how it looked in the pictures, and we aren't greeted with a welcome drink. However, our seafood lunch is being prepared so things are looking up. The deep fried frozen fish and rice with a bit of wilted cabbage isn't exactly what I was expecting, but the views as we eat are really mesmerising. Ha Long translates to "where the dragon descends into the sea" and the legend is that a great dragon lived in the mountains, and as it ran towards the coast, it's flailing tail created valleys that filled with water as it plunged into the sea, the result being the incredible collection of mystical turrets you can see for miles and miles.

We're off to do an afternoon of exploring the islets which is super exciting, until we actually get into the promised kayak and it turns out we get just half an hour! We've made friends by now, with Mario from Amsterdam, and Sara from Toronto, so we paddle off together and unexpectedly buy some beer from a little woman on a floating supermarket! This, of course, causes us to return a little late, literally 5 minutes, and we're severely scolded by our guide, plus the boat has gone without us! When it returns for us, we go off to a cave, which is quite interesting although we're rushed round it, then back to out transport boat where the police stop us as the boat is overcrowded and 4 people have to get off... Looks like it's us, the trouble makers! While we wait for our boat to return, the dock security man takes a shine to me and keeps looking me up and down, winking, and brushing past me, which Ben is completely oblivious to! This delay means we can't go swimming, and we are even asked to pay a bribe so the tour company doesn't get a fine, which we refuse to do.

Back now to the boat with a few hours to spare before dinner... Que floating supermarket lady turning up at our cabin window! We had been warned that bringing drinks on board incurred an extra tax to the ship, but with the onboard prices being massively inflated we get our pals involved, with a new recruit of German Danny, and take the risk! After dinner we head straight back to the cabin and enjoy the secret stash, as the proposed squid fishing and karaoke has failed to make an appearance.

Getting up proves to be difficult at 6.45 but a full day of fun lies ahead on Cat Ba Island, first stop: the National Park. We head off on our hour and a half trek but not everyone on the trip was expecting this so a few people stay behind and some do take it in their stride albeit wearing flip flops. We're prepared with our hiking shoes and it's a reasonably difficult incline with fabulous views from the top down at the rainforest. There's also a giant tower to climb which some of us decide to tackle, although when you get to the top it doesn't seem such a good idea. The tower is actually a hugely corroded iron mess, with loads of big gaps to fall through and just loose planks of wood at the top to stand on, coming back down was pretty nerve racking and I realised why the guide gave it a miss. The "cycling through a shaded orchard" wasn't to be and it was back on the Minibus of Love for 45 minutes to our hotel, which was surprisingly good, with the hot shower ratio coming in at 50% when discussed over a highly improved large lunch.

Next on the itinerary is Tiptop Beach and Monkey Island. I've had previous experience with tourist areas inhabited with monkeys, so it didn't surprise me to find a few brave primates snatching food and chasing unwitting Japanese people down the beach! We'd met three nice people from Watford who had merged with our tour, and we decided to climb some rocks up to the highest point, successfully, wearing flip flops! Was really worth while although we were followed by 80% of the other people around, causing quite a bit of traffic on the journey back down!

Hospital Cave, used in the war as a secret medical facility, was forgotten about by the guide on the way back, but dinner was good and we had found a cheap shop nearby, plus some flyers for a bar with some tempting deals such as "buy one, get one" and "free drink for woman". We couldn't resist and ended up playing "card" and "dart" until 1am.

Day three... 7.30 check out and another quarry of activities lay ahead, but what transpired was a full 10 hours of waiting around and travelling back to Hanoi. To add insult to injury, it turned out we had paid nearly double what a few others had paid but on average about $30 per person more than most people, and our friendly travel agent had clearly not booked us on the tour we had asked for. We did have a great time at these natural wonders in the emerald waters and literally laughed every second of the way so there was no hard feelings at all, especially when I got a partial refund by threatening to sit inside the travel agency the whole of the next day and tell everyone who came in of our experience. Jeni and Ben: 1, Love Planet Tours: 0.

The next revelation was that the hotel we stayed in was not the one booked at all, but had actually cloned the name of the one we booked online! We had heard practically everyone say the North was very different from the South and how right they all were, we went from having everyone bend over backwards for you, to them attempting to take advantage at every opportunity! It definitely hasn't soured our time here.

As our journey takes us out of Vietnam, I conclude that it really is a majestic nation of determined optimists, in mostly a positive, but occasionally a negative sense!