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Ok, bare with me guys... I am well over a week behind on my blog, so as not to confuse myself (let alone you lot) I am going to try and write up these blogs chronologically and in the right locations (I may well get them wrong, although you will never really know anayway... but I shall endevour to recall it all correctly!).
SO i believe i left you when i was in Hanoi and about to embark on the 3 day trip to Ha Long Bay.....
We had been hunting around the city to find the best tour to go with a as there are thousands of trips on offer and there are even companies that are fakes (mimiking successful tour companies) so we had to be vigilant! However, in the last week before we came away (when i was, no doubt, running around like a headless chicken) I ran into an old school friend, Hannah, who raved about the 'hanoi hostel backpackers' tour..saying that it was theeee ONLY one to go on and that it was lots of fun. So, with this advice in tow (and personal recommendations are like gold dust when travelling) we went to find this place. When we did we didnt know what to expect..it was certainly a lively hostel with tour reps and residents literally bouncing off the walls, beer was flowing (at 4pm) and the music was blaring (oh god..do I sound really old?-dont answer that) .. and the guy talking us through the tour sounded so enthusiastic (unsurprisingly) and we thought 'what the hell, sign me up'. Our only revervation was that it was going to be a 'brits abroard-club 18-30-eat-your-heart-out kind of affiar). Nevertheless, at 8 O'clock the next mornining we were being piled onto a bus (having all been given a mulitcoloured sombrero) and were introduced to our tour rep Tom (a spritley Irish Guy who is bluntly sarcastic and was horrendously hung over) and we met our fellow boat trippers..which inclued a character who would end up being the life and soul of the party- a 28 yr old Dutch Woman called Merlous [merloose]. It wasnt even until i had left the trip that i managed to remember what her name was, for the duration of the trip i just called her moosh. Anyway, things were looking up as it was so nice to be mingling with lots of people again and they all seemed like a great bunch.
On day one we got onto our (exceptionally nice) boat and stopped for lunch amoung the islands..away from the rest of the tourist boats. And after lunch we were allowed to jump off the top of the boat....It was another scary but amazing things to do..it was high enough that you got 'that feeling' in your stomach [its what we know in our family as the gee-whizz-giddies]. Then after a bit more chilling we took our some sea Kayaks and went to a cave which was..well dark and cave like, but was nice to be being active. Then we went back for a slap up meal before the drinking games started (apparently is the best way to get to know people- and funnily enough it seemed to do the trick!). Needless to say it was a merry, merry night that ended with a tabletop disco into the early hours...
Its fair to say that when we were woken up at 7.30 am the next morning, we were all feeling non-too great. All i can say is imaging having room spin on a hot boat.enough said. Yet we all managed to keep our breakfast down (too much information??) as we boarded the transfer boat to castaway island, where we were to spend our second night. This island is a private island and was absolutely stunning. we had a gorgeous beach, a pontoon, a bar and huts on the beach to sleep in. So we all sat slumped around the lunch table nursing our sore heads when we were introduced to Ciaran, our (Irish) wakeboard instructor. We had some lunch, a swim, and a nap and then i was ready to face the wakeboarding.. I have never done this before and was assured i didnt need upper body strength (im telling you now..you do need it!)... so i bravely offered to go first because i didnt mind making a fool of myself..and I had about 6 attempts.. stood up 3 times..but hadnt quite got it, and i was gutted becasue i was so close, just ran out of time.But I deffinately want to try it again so if anyone is up for trying it with me in Enlgland then let me know!!
As the sun set on the island...the real magic happened : have you ever seen glowing plankton? (apparently its in the film 'the beach') Describing it will not do it justice, you really have to experience it for yourself.. but basically when you swim in the water at night, the plankton light up, like a flourescent whit/green around you. Its obviously triggered by movement so its like swimming in glitter. It was amazing, we swam out to the pontoon and sat there looking at the star studded sky, with a light storm, shooting stars and this glowing plankton..It was beautiful. Then we swam back for dinner and a few more drinks before turning in for the night under the stars.
The flolowing moringin we had to say goodbye to the island as we went back to the big boat for lunch and then eventually back to the harbour, and then to the hostel. we spent the afternoon and evening chillng out with the new friends we had made and then we had to say goodbye to them as we were getting a sleeper train (16 hours) to Hoi An.
I shall sign off here and carry on in my next blog with Hoi An........ Ta'ra for now xxx
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