Halong Bay, Vietnam

As expected, Hanoi is very clearly not as nice as Hoi An, but that's because it's a crazy mad busy city and I'm not so keen on crazy mad, big cities. Anyhoo! We flew to Hanoi and got picked up at the airport and taken to our hostel. Having been spoilt with such beauty in Hoi An, the road trip to our hostel was a journey back into the chaos that is South East Asian city centers. Having been spoilt with such beautiful hotels in most other places we've stayed, when we arrived at our hostel in Hanoi I was immediately disappointed. It's fine...it's where backpackers are meant to stay, but it smells horrible and it's basic - but I'm being a snob and once I settled in, I realised it really is fine and the staff here are lovely (I realised that after one of them said I was very skinny - I decided I loved the staff after that comment!).

We headed out to get some dinner and managed to make it to a restaurant about three doors up from the hostel. I found the streets pretty intimidating in the dark. There were people sat all over the streets eating and there were like a million mopeds speeding up and down the streets and I didn't fancy venturing far from the hostel in the dark. So we went into this nearby restaurant and Kev ordered Beef in black bean sauce while I ordered stir fried beef. When the dishes arrived, Kev's looked perfectly like nice bits of beef - mine however didn't look like beef and Kev took great joy trying to convince me that I was eating dog! It tasted good though so whatever it was, I ate it all (it wasn't dog!!).

We started chatting to a couple of Swedish guys who were sat across from them and we soon showed our geekiness! They asked us whether we were heading out to find the local night clubs and I said 'oh no! We've got an early start in the morning, we're heading to Halong Bay', to which they replied 'Oh yeah, so are we but that's no excuse!' - pretty embarrassing how uncool we are, but I was tired!!

So the next morning the bus arrived to take us to Halong Bay. It stopped and picked up a fair few more people and then headed off on the bumpiest 4 hour journey we've ever been on - honestly, at some points I thought my head was going to hit the ceiling of the bus it was so bumpy - Kev thought it was hysterical to watch me getting more and more annoyed with every bump! At Halong Bay we were ushered off the bus and through all the confusion we found our way onto the little boat that would take us to our Junk (the name of the type of boats they use, not to condition of the boats - although as one of the guys we met on the boat did joke, it could explain the reason for the name of the boats!!).

As soon as we got on board the sea was choppy and as we sat down in the restaurant I though, blimey, this is going to be a long night and there might well be a lot of sickage along the way! But once we got out to sea the choppiness calmed down and it was fine, despite the terrible weather - it was pouring down with rain, and I mean pouring down! We settled down to the first of our many varied meals on board - a platter of numerous little dishes for each table, lots of seafood and in general really good. It also gave us a chance to get to know the other guys on the boat and I genuinely think we were really lucky with our trip that everyone on the boat was so lovely, we all seemed to get on really well and just had a great time chatting. We met two guys from LA (one who works in TV out there) who were really hoping to meet up with when we get out there - it'd be great to see them again. And we also got on really really well with two Australian couples, one from Melbourne and one from a national park outside of Sydney (they showed us photos of their home and man, it looks awesome!). I don't think the overnight trip would have been half as good if we hadn't met all these guys, they really made the trip for us.

After lunch we went to look at some caves - I had a moment of hesitation when we began entering through a tiny hole in the rock and had visions of tunnels of tiny spaces, but I persevered through and the cave inside was so massive there was no way in the world I could have been claustrophobic in there! Kev really enjoyed the cave and took some good photos - we also bumped into the Swedish guys in that cave who were doing a similar tour to us - the ones who had been out partying the night before!). We got back to the boat and the weather had eased so we decided we'd go for a swim. It was brilliant to jump off the boat and into the water, although the first time I jumped in I suddenly though, blinking heck, I hope there are no sharks here! I was assured there weren't, but nevertheless I didn't stray far from the ship just in case!!

More food and more drinks and plenty of great chat later and it was bed time. Our room was really sweet, but very bizarre - rose petals on the bed and a really comfy bed, but just a shower curtain (with a big hole in it) separating that lovely room from our toilet - needless to say, not many secrets between me and Kev now!!

This morning we got up early and went out Kayaking through some more caves - it was good fun and so beautiful with the sun beating down on us, but unfortunately it only lasted half hour or so and then we were back on the boat. Really wanted another swim but the boat was beginning it's trip back to shore so unless we wanted left behind we didn't really dare jump into the sea.

Back on land about lunch time and back in the bumpy bus back to Hanoi. It was actually really sad when everyone started getting dropped back at their hotels because we really did like everyone and it felt like we'd all spent longer together than just one day. But hopefully we'll keep in touch.

We got back to our hostel in Hanoi and Kev's tummy dictated that we head out to get some food. It wasn't long before I was getting stressed again with all the noise and the traffic and after much moaning we finally went into a pizza restaurant that was recommended in the guide book. I sat down and tried to relax and block out the deafening noise of the roads outside. But before I'd had time to chill so some Vietnamese family came in to eat with their three young boys. They proceeded to allow the three young boys to sit on the floor by my feet and play with some stupid spinning top - they were shouting at the top of their voices and their silly toy kept knocking into me and I just though, how come their parents aren't staying 'boys - watch out for the other people in the restaurant', no, they didn't care. Then the spinning top hit Kev's leg and that was it, one of the little brats started screaming in Vietnamese at Kev - Kev thought it was funny, but that was the last straw for me - I either hit the little brat or got our food to take away - hence Kev persuaded me to take the latter option.

We came back to the room and ate our take away (burger and chips, man it was good!!). Managed to get through to my folks on Skype which was so good as I'd been trying for ages but with time differences and stuff it'd been proving difficult. Cheered me up speaking to them and seeing them. Kev's sister is due to have her baby today we think so the mobile is constantly by our side waiting to hear as soon as it happens - Debs if you're reading this, good luck and I bet you can't wait!!!

We've got a day looking round Hanoi tomorrow so I've promised I'll get an early night, get well rested and prepared and try and have a day with no moaning tomorrow. Watch this space to see how that goes!! xxxx