Good morning uk in which will be the last of my blogs from Vietnam. We booked a 3 boat trip containing kayaking, bicycle riding, hotel on cat ba island and a night on the boat in halong bay and I have to say a brilliant time was had.

An early start involved the obligatory boat ride to the port where we would get our 'junk boat' and spend alot of our time. There was about 15 on our group with a mixture of Australian, French, Canadian, English, Chinese and dutch. Our tour guide was a top boy and his introduction was top notch. He came across as a bit a womaniser comparing eating the every day rice as having a wife but when they had noodles this was his mistress. Unfortunately for him he said those days were soon to be behind him as he was soon to be married and he was up with the crew on the first night writing his wedding Invitations. He informed us his name was 'tuan', I first of all mistook this for comedy purposes as being dwayne but he said his name stood for 'handsome' so our group was to be called 'handsome group' if we ever got lost and from that point whenever you wanted to get his attention you would just call him 'handsome'. Going back to the meanings of the names i am slightly dubious of meanings, as every Vietnamese person I have met regardless of their different names has a meaning of handsome, beautiful, lucky, good fortune things like that. I have to ask that with law of averages there must be someone out there meaning bad luck, fat, ugly etc.. I introduced myself and my location and informed him he could call me 'handsome number 2' but I don't think he liked me stepping on his territory and the name was not used again, even Tina didn't use it!

The boat was 3 levels with bedrooms, dining area/small bar and a top deck with chairs and sun lounges. The captain had a bed by the wheel and I was informed he steered with his feet which all made for a relaxed approach on the boat. As per the usual start of the excursion conversation between people is the typical introductory niceties as we joined each other for lunch. Fortunately we got on a good table with people who we would spend much of trip. We had a couple from Australians- Matt and Eva (she was actually born in Denmark but lived in oz the last 20years), a quality Dutch guy called Jens, a top lad from Manchester called dave and another Australian couple. There was also a french guy but he sounded like he bored the crap out of most people on the boat by the end of it about how he was studying massage and what his travels were like so he won't get a further mention on this blog. Lunch consisted of an array of different seafood, soup which was always then known as Jelly soup due Tinas dislike and it's consistency, and the usual vat of rice. I felt sorry for the younger australian couple as the girl did not eat seafood, although her concerns were noted by handsome and the crew they still brought out mainly seafood laughing off the suggestion of someone being vegetarian. I think there is only so much rice and cabbage the one girl can eat but she went about it without further protest.

The drinkers of the group usually show themselves earlier by having a can of Hallida beer early on and concerns were rife due to high prices but this never stops us. I was pleased to see matt and on the beers so I knew a good night would surely follow.

We sailed into halong bay which was quite beautiful. It's not often when you see place and your are not disappointed that it does not live up to your expectations but these were surpassed. Sadly photos do not often capture the same so sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy it, beer in hand obviously! Halong bay is indeed one of the 7 natural wonders of the world and it contains nearly 2000 small limestone outcrops or islands. The waters are fairly clear and the fact there are only the sail boats/junk boats and small long boats rather than the eyesore speed boat or cruisers certainly adds to it's tranquil feel.

We had our first scheduled stop off which were at the caves called Hang Thieng Cung caves. This brought back memories of geography lessons and the formations of stalactites and stalagmites. They were very impressive and you have to appreciate the Vietnamese way of thinking as he proceeded to point out various rock formations which supposedly looked like things like; a giant turtle, lion, chickens, Buddha and a large penis (very cultural). I'd love to say I saw them all but unfortunately I was rushed out of the toilet before we got off the boat and not told what we weredoing so it meant Tina and I had no camera, I couldn't see as I had no glasses. Manchester save was in the same boat (no pun intended there) as he had no camera and didn't even take shoes as he thought we were kayaking, perhaps this was just an English thing but always disappointing when you can't document the moment by film.

The caves were followed by moving onto 'T Top Island' where it had amazing views. Not in the brochure was the extra charge for this and it involved a trek up what seemed a vertical mountain all for views that we couldn't take photos off. Lucky for us we had befriended Eva and she will hopefully tag us in a photos soon so we can relive the vertical climb. It was then kayaking time and I wish we had a video of this event. Let's just say Tina and I in a kayak together, me with 3 beers under my belt and the adventure requiring Tina and I to work together could be classified as an error of judgement. Literally we pushed off and immediately hit a stationary junk boat, it didn't help we were required to work together but instead proceeded to row out of synch and on our desired paths. We however got away with that and got ourselves moving and it was weird just kayaking around these beautiful islands with so little sound except for Tina yelling "not that way" and "do it properly". We were given an hour in the kayak which is no use at all given that when we were out at sea neither of us had a watch so we quickly did a figure of 8 around the islands and returned for dinner.

Dinner was with the obligatory starter now known as jelly soup but this time with seafood in it. Stuffed crabs, prawns, some kind of massive translucent langoustine like creature and weirdly chips and rice. Tina and the girls were not so taken by it but I through it down like any professional kayaker would. Out came the Hallida beer and the shockingly bad Vietnamese wine called de lat and the evening took shape. I was told originally karaoke might happen so this means drinking quite a bit to numb the pain but thankfully his never occurred and the evening would go on to be a success.

The culprits left adding to their bar tally during the evening were Dutch Jens, matt, Eva, dave and Tina and handsome's crew in the background. Tina had been itching to play cards since we left London and she got her wish when matt and Dave suggested a game of 's***head', neither of which recalled the rules correctly. As the drink flowed different versions of the game took shape all if which had to be written down and duly agreed and signed at the point of change. I think we must have been on version 4.2 when the game to a conclusion. We had mirror cards, translucent 3 cards, reverse 7 card, clear the deck 10 etch very amusing (a picture will be posted with the final rules which is up there with the sacred 10 commandments tablet I'm sure).Poor Jens must have thought we were ganging up on him as he came s***head time and again all if which were added to the tally for his viewing pleasure. Between games much of the conversation to the staff was "halide beer, room 3 cheers handsome" or in dave's case "another beer for Rooney" as he was now known to staff (unfortunately the staff had never heard of chopra for me). Te night ended within us trying to fish off the back of the boat but the only bait being some strawberry sweets that I had bought. Respect goes to Eva and her fishing exploits as she seemed to have the bait above the water basically requiring the fish to jump out of the water to get caught or get hooked by her lasso like motion, needless to say we she caught a bit of plastic and the night was done.

Sore heads followed the next day and the tally of beers were evident in the bar. Needless to say a bit if jelly soup, toast had us up and about for our trip over to cat ba island. We lost matt and Eva as they were only on a 2 day trip but picked up another pleasant English couple who were again almost talked to death by the Frenchman. This trip involved me getting to swim in ice cold like water and visiting a monkey island. Nothing quite as exciting as seeing a monkey chewing on a can of fanta. We then got to bicycle on the island for a couple of islands which was enjoyable and I felt manly have a no gear bicycle with a basket on it, roll over Dennis hopper in easy rider!

Back on the boat to weave our way through the islands and to a pearl farm. We were told how they give the oysters part of their own shell and tricks them into thinking they have a grain of sand in the shell so they bleed out which will eventually help form the pearl. Some of these can take up to 4 years, although impressive I got distracted by the 2 girls in the so called processing room who were feeding each oyster the dummy part. One of them had the biggest mole thing on her face I have ever seen, I just didn't know where to look. A picture was taken for evidence as I know Ed likes things like that to be documented as I wish at that moment Ed you were there to do your Austin powers bit.

We stayed a night in cat ba island in a luxury hotel, I want to say more but I'm
writing inside that I never hot my Buffett breakfast as promised in our trip leaflet. Drinks were had with Jens about his heady days in holland while dave and Tina got massages in the bar we were in like a bunch of old ladies that you would see gossiping in any woman institute meeting.

The following morning was the boat ride back where we chilled on the top if the boat. So the 'handsome tour' was all over and a fantastic time had. Always nice to meet done quality people and hopefully we will stay in contact with them.

Right that's me done. Apologies for I'm sure many grammatical errors but I'm now on the wine in the process of going onto enjoy Christmas eve in laos.

Robbie c out for now and merry Christmas to you one and all.