Ha Long and Ho Chi

Yet another early start was upon us and with breakfast not arriving on time, it wasn't the most relaxed morning either. On booking a different 2 day/1 night Ha Long Bay trip to girls (Cass and Jess) we had met the previous day, we discussed how it would be funny if we were on the same trip as we had paid different prices. However, when a minibus came the pushy driver/guide insisted we were both on the same pick-up and therefore the same trip. This was the start of a crazy level of disorganisation and set the tone for the next few days....

The 4 hour minibus ride passed without too much drama, just a lot of paddy fields and scooters transporting various crazy items including terracotta pots and caged chickens. Towards the end of the journey the Bay became visible and was looking as incredible as we had imagined. On arrival, the vast and numerous limestone karst formations seemed to be teasing us as we had to wait an hour for passports to be collected, bungs to be paid, and tenders to be located. When we did get to out Junk, we were very happy to see we had been upgraded to a "Du Lich" (Deluxe) boat rather than the standard we had paid for, bonus! This mean a significant upgrade in the quality of boat and the onboard food which was both delicious and volumous, just how we like it, so we decided to celebrate and crack open the beers with lunch, with our Canadian, American, French and Slovenian counterparts.

Luckily, we had also been graced with unlikely sunshine for the time of year which meant the next couple of hours were spent chatting on the sun loungers, catching sun rays, beers in hand, conversing with our new bezzers, and enjoying the incredible views this UNESCO World Heritage Site has to offer. Ha Long Bay, of both Top Gear and James Bond fame, failed to disappoint with its stunning vistas, the thousands of islands majestically rising out of the sea for miles into the horizon.

Our first stop was Sung Sot (translated "surprising") Cave, where we were told by our clueless guide that we should try and do it in 40 minutes as we were 'slightly' behind schedule and we needed to get kayaking before sunset. This proved to be no big issue, as we glided through these impressive caves in the allotted amount of time. However, on arrival at the pick up point another obligatory, seemingly pointless, wait ensued before our tender came to pick us up and take us round the corner to the kayaks. With tens of kayak available, no-one was overly worried until our guide explained we would have to wait for some paddles but as other groups seem to jump straight on it was becoming clear our guide had the decisiveness of a snail. Finally, after a prolonged long wait we got 30ish minutes of paddling in. We were last back as we had lost track of time in our pursuit to get as far away from the hoards of other tourists as possible and had found an uber cool dark cave with the World's Biggest Jellyfish inside, which put us off swimming somewhat...

With darkness setting-in, we proceeded to have an incredible dinner on the boat, accompanied by more beers and followed by some card games as very bad 80s music played. It was at this point we properly meet Adam, as Steve and I were playing cards with Jess and Cass. Adam the barman was very friendly and showed us some card tricks, before interrogating us as to whether we were married?..."No"...Did we have girlfriends?..."No"...Why not we are so handsome?...."Um just haven’t at the moment Adam". It was at this point until the end of the trip, Adam did not leave us alone, giving us back rubs and dodgy looks and not pestering the girls once. So if you ever meet an Asian man named Adam, stay away, as we have a 100% record for finding the ones that wouldn't look twice at Eve. With the beer pyramid starting to reach dizzying heights, the night didn’t last too much longer with everyone tired and another early start ahead, and the prospect of some of the comfiest beds in Asia.

A 7am breakfast got everyone up early before the 3day/2night trippers boarded their next boat as the 4 of us left waited, again, before slowly cruising back to terra firma. The 3 hour cruise took us back through a different section of the islands giving us more awe-inspiring views to savor. There is no doubt about Ha Long Bay is definitely worth a visit, even though the trip was disorganised and we didn’t do everything on our itinery, for 30 bucks which included all transport, food and accommodation, we had little reason to complain.

The journey back to Hanoi was slow and painful with both an integration from fresh travelers about OZ and getting torn apart by a Danish girl at Chinese Poker (who gets 4 2s!). We did however get back, completly shattered and checked in to our damp hotel and settled down to another United game.

With two more days in Vietnam's capital city, we took the first at a very slow pace, just adminating (as we love it so much) and taking in the culture and food. Hanoi's traffic certainly never gets boring or any safer. In the evening we took full us of free internet and booked the 4 Indian trains we need to take (as they get booked up well in advance) and managed to get the total 1945km journey for just over 12 quid, oh my India is cheap!

Today we decided to be more productive and went so see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Uncle Ho in his final resting place. To cover the 3km journey there we decided to take a rickshaw to complete the set of types of Vietnamese transport. This came complete with driver trying to sell us both Marijuana and "Boom-Boom", whatever that is... Unfortunately the Lonely Planet decided to lie to us and only the museum in the complex was open, which was interesting but hardly insightful with most of the text in Vietnamese. On the way back we hit up the Temple of Literature for yet more culture understanding before devouring a KFC at the expense at most of our remaining Dong.

Tonight it's off to Laos on the night bus and a border crossing known as one of the worst in SE Asia.....