Back in Hanoi now, after an eventful trip to Cat Ba Island. We signed up to a bus trip to Halong bay, and got roped into catching a ferry over to Cat Ba Island. It was absolute mayhem at Halonh harbour, so many private ships ready to take tourists on tours. All the ships lookd like pirate ships, all made of wood. The journey went very smoothly, we stopped at some caves and took little wooden rowing boats around the little islands, it reminded me of the film 'The Beach'! Everytime our boat stopped, Vietnamese women would bomb it out of know-where to sell you fruit and vodka from their little rickety rowing boats. It seems that one word the Vietnamese and Westerners have in common is 'Vodka', haha. It was a bit chilly up on the top deck, so we all went downstairs to have a nice chilled out game of cards. Somebody noticed that we were heading to an island and i think we all assumed we were either docking or visiting another cave......but oh no!We crashed pretty hard into the island.Tables went flying, windows smashed and i have yet another bruised knee.....but its all good fun!

We arrived on the island later than imagined, after managing to scav a few free drinks and some munch for the 'trauma' we went through!haha. Caught a mini-bus to a hotel that only sost us $5 a night, and it was pretty nice. Decided we would have our first proper night out on the town, as their were quite a few westerners about. Had a delicious dinner of vegetable fried rice (i am so craving meat but just dont trust it round here!). Headed to the only night club on the island that was upon the hill, it was full of crazy vietnamese. It was quite a laugh, but we didnt stick around too long. Instead we found a really cheesy karaoke bar, where we met some people that we later went for some noodle soup with at about 2am,haha!

After a lush lie in, we thought we would give motorbikes a try.....Jon went for a spin, but decided he didnt trust himself....Andy went off down the road and couldn't work the breaks...and Lauren and I decided it would be safer if we didnt even try! So we got drivers instead, and squeezed 2 of us on each, plus the driver!Went round the island for a few hours, and if only the weather had been nicer it would have been gorgeous!

We arrived back in Hnaoi yesterday evening. We decided we would make our own way back, and caught the slow boat to Haiphong, a bus to Hanoi bus station and a taxi to our hotel. It was an absolute nightmare, we got ripped off on the ferry and the taxi!The taxi driver told us that we were off our map and it was a 30km journey in which he tried to charge us $100, we thought we were getting a good deal at 200 dong, but it took less than ten minutes to get to the hotel....rip off. We got a good hotel though as i think the hotel owner felt sorry for us!\

People don't seem as freindly here in Vietnam compared to India, people don't smile as much. Andy even got his shoe spat on earlier today, and know-one tries to speak English (i suppose we don't speak Vietnames, but thats not the point!) We find ourselves eating at western restaurants, as the local ones dont seem that welcoming. Apparently the further south you go the nicer the people and the nicer the weather, so we are all looking forward to that!

Off to Sapa tonight, catching an overnight train. We booked it with a tour company this time, so hopefully some of the stress will be taken away and we wont be ripped off! Its on the Chinese/Vietnames border and apparently its freezing right now. We have even been given a hotel room with an open fireplace! Think I'll be putting on all the clothes i bought with me!

 I just uploaded about 30 pictures but for some reason they are showing with a red cross in the corner, i cant seem them!Not sure if you will be able oo, but i just got a couple of cd's made so i'll probably send one home when i get back into Hanoi again!

xx