Awoke early in the hopes of seeing a sunrise but still dark at 5.30am. About 6.15am started to get light but no sunrise as too much cloud and mist. Very cold too as quite a strong breeze. Breaky which wasn't overly great. Then Grandy, Poppy and Rob stayed on boat while others went on little boat to an island where they climbed to the top to have a view of Ha Long Bay. Quite hard work to get to top of mountain. When they arrived back we had to vacate cabins at 9....

Up early for breaky then picked up for our trip to Ha Long Bay. Drizzled most of the way down (3 1/2 hours) so the beautiful limestone cliffs very misty and ethereal. Our ' vietnamese junk' was the smaller 10 cabin Phoenix Cruiser'. Beautiful boat , cabins gorgeous and lovely and clean. Cannot even hear the motors as you cruise along. 15 of us all up. 6 French and 3 Californians and the 7 of us. Set sail at about 1 pm eating beautiful seafood lunch in the dining ...