Halong Bay

I'm not a massive fan of organised tours, especially with a bus involved. So I was a bit disappointed when I read that you pretty much have to do one to see Halong Bay...at about 8pm on Tues night after a few beers I decided to book one with the hostel for the following day...

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised...after the inevitable roadside shop stop (these companies have to earn their kickbacks after all) we got to Halong City around lunchtime and then spent the afternoon on the boat cruising among the limestone kasts and doing a bit of kayaking which was awesome fun (although was totally knackered after about an hour). We also got taken to the wonderfully named 'surprising cave' which was kindof cool except the number of people walking through was more reminiscent of Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon than the tranquility I had expected. Fortunately there were a bunch of Irish guys on the boat who nearly managed to smuggle 2 bottles of Hanoi vodka (my Oxford friends will recognise the taste as being simillar to the stuff served at PT) aboard - in the end the people on the boat found it and levied a 'service charge' of 10USD...anyway we stayed up until around 1 drinking this stuff while our guide sang karaoke in the bar below !

The next day the group split up and myself, another English guy (Rob), some Malasian girls and a German family headed to Cat Ba island...Cat Ba was actually really nice; much less tourists and a beautful sunset drinking beer with the locals by the dock. Then went to a bar with Rob and watched a woman on a nearby table literally fall over flat on her faceafter inhaling 'shisha' (although the evidence points to something stronger).

The next day we all headed back to Hanoi; spent some of the boat ride back chatting to a boat surveyor from Alaska with very strong anti-Communist views (she referred to everyone in the North of Vietnam as 'viet cong') who then began to attack the 'liberally biased media' for portraying America and Americans in a bad light - in particular the New York Times. Oh dear.