......well, what a epic fail that was. Man alive, what a day we have had! We got to Halong Bay (4 hour journey) to be told that a typhoon would hit Vietnam tonight so we would have to have lunch on the boat and go back to Hanoi straight away. Had an okay lunch on the boat we had booked to stay on and then headed back to the shore at 4pm. Met some amazing people on the boat we made friends with. A lady who lives in Cambodia who I mentioned earlier, a couple from Singapore and two couples from Australia. We all got on really well and tried to make light of the situation (that we were all $100 down and it was so foggy we couldn't see the bay).
So...got back to the shore to catch the bus and waited...and waited....and waited....only to be told that a bus had crashed and the driver had been killed :( absolutely awful. Basically 700 people had to be evacuated from Halong because of the typhoon and this was causing huge traffic jams and traffic.
We moved to a cafe with our new friend s and chatted about our different cultures for hours...no, literally for FOUR hours until the bus turned up. During this time the sky was turning navy blue and it was getting windier and windier. I've never felt so scared about the weather before, very strange feeling. We were assured by our lovely tour guide the typhoon was not due to hit until 10pm and we finally got away at 7pm. PHEW!
Now we're sat on the bus, somewhere between awake and asleep and sat in stand still traffic. Looks like it will be about a 6 hour trip home.
On the bright side, we met some amazing people today, and we are staying with the lady in Cambodia when we go and have been invited to Singapore!
Sorry for such a negative blog but its been a tough one today.....now for sleep, beer and then bed (I've never been more excited about getting to a hotel away from the coast before).