Last night, there was a big storm. There were almighty crashes of thunder and lightening strikes that lit up the whole sky. I was hoping that storm would clear the air and this morning would be a lovely day. But no, we woke up to a rainy day. I didn't sleep well last night so feel a bit tired, but i'm hoping the day will brighten up. It's not even rainy season in Vietnam and last night was the first time it's rained since we've been in the country. I guess it's just our luck!

By the time we got picked up, the rain had stopped. A man came to the hotel to collect us and said his name was Tom, he will be our guide on the cruise. There's also an assistant guide who's name is Viet and our driver is called Wee. It tajes 3 hours to get to Halong Bay from
Hanoi. While we travelled, Tom told us a few things about Hanoi, including that the city is surrounded by 14 rivers and you have to cross a bridge to in or out of the city. There are also around 7 million people living in the city, of those people, 5 million have bikes. He said the government encourages people to have bikes as owning a car in Vietnam is expensive. We also got told our itinerary for the trip. We passed lots of rice paddy fields and beautiful scenery along the way too.

Halong Bay

Half way through the journey we stopped at yet another place where they try and sell you stuff. Lots of paintings and furniture, clothes, books and souvenirs. We didn't buy any of it though as nice as the stuff was. Then we carried on towards Halong bay for another hour and a half or so. I was so tired I fell asleep until we got to the harbour. Although John did wake me up to show me some of the limestone carsts which he thought was Halong Bay, but we hadn't arrived yet. When we did finally reach there, the scenery was beautiful. There were many carsts all surrounding the bay and this was the port. I'm sure when we sail it will be even more beautiful.

We boarded a dinghy to take us to the boat, it was a galaxy premium boat. When we boarded, we were greeted with welcome drinks in the restaurant area. It was exactly like the pictures we saw in the brochure. We sat there until we were given our room keys. Then we went down to our room, it was a lovely room with big windows and when I tried out the bed, it was so comfortable, I wish we were staying for more than one night. We had a bit of free time to unpack our stuff and then it was lunchtime. There was so much food served it was like a feast. There was a soup, papaya salad, prawns, taro balls, spring rolls, sea bass and lots of rice to go around. We sat on the table with a lovely couple from Singapore who we got chatting to.

Caves

Just as we were eating lunch, it started to rain, which was annoying. Tom said we'll wait a few minutes to see if the rain stops, but it didn't. So we got given ponchos and boarded the dinghy, which took us to the caves. These caves were discovered by the French. We had to walk up hundreds of steps to get into the caves and there were so many tourists here. Once we entered the cave, I was impressed. It was quite big open space with stagletmites and stalactites. Although Tom said there was an even bigger section of the cave.

So we carried on walking through to the main section and wow, i've never seen such a big cave in all my life. It was really impressive. We walked around most of it on a man made path. Tom pointed out a dragons tail in the roof of the cave. Legend has it that there once was a dragon living in the cave. No wonder so many people come to the caves. It's definitely the best cave we've been to on our whole trip. We saw light at the end of the tunnel, so walked up the steps go get out of the cave.

Beach time

By the time we left the caves, it had stopped raining so while we were high up, we took advantage of the views around us. Although everyone had the same idea and it was a bit crowded, so we got back on the dinghy. We waited for everyone to return, then we went back to the big boat. We changed into our beach stuff. Then all of us got taken to the beach on one of the islands called Titlov. The sea is like an emerald green colour here, even when it's not bright sunshine, it would look even nicer with a bit of sun.

Before we went for a swim, we climbed to the view point on the island. We walked up many more steps. It was hard work even with the sun being behind the clouds. When we finally reached the top, we were rewarded with excellent views over Halong Bay. It doesn't have yo be sunny here to admire the spectacular scenery. Like Ko Tao, it started to get a bit crowded, so we hiked back down. We found a spot on the beach and went for a swim in the sea. The water was quite warm so it was good to cool done after our walk. There were loads of locals all swimming here too. I also saw some macaques by the beach when we got out of the water, so went to watch them. They were scrapping and one looks like it had its ear bitten off by another monkey. I watched them for a few minutes then went back to the beach to relax until it was time to leave.

Karaoke evening entertainment

Once we returned to the boat, we showered and had a bit of time before dinner. So we went up on the top deck to watch the sunset. Although the sun hadn't been out all day, the colours in the sky went a nice colour, luckily for us. We stayed up on the top deck. I was just happy to look at the sky and take pictures, but John was getting hungry, so when it got dark, we went downstairs to wait for the food.

We sat on the table with the couple from Singapore again; Frank and Rosalind. Shortly after we sat down, dinner was served. It was another seafood feast. Prawns, crab, squid, sea bass arrived, plus rice, salad, fruit, veg and a chicken curry. We won't be going hungry any time soon. Frank ordered wine and poured John and myself a glass and we chatted throughout dinner. They are a lovely couple probably in their 60s. We've also got some groups of young people and a few couples on our boat, so I think it's a good mix of people.

Once we'd all finished dinner, Tom our guide encouraged us all to do karaoke. We don't really like it, well John hates it, so it wasn't something we were looking forward to. Frank was first to start the singing off; he sang 'The young ones' for us English. It was nice of him to dedicate a song to us, although we didn't think he sang that well really! He made an effort anyhow. Then Frank really wanted us to sing, John really want up for it, but I didn't mind doing a duet with him. I persuaded him in the end and we sang 'Yesterday' by the Beatles with him. Although that was the one and only song we ended up singing. Frank sang most of the songs, and actually he got a lot better and was very entertaining for the night. The English girls, an Irish guy sang some songs too. We'd had a few drinks and have thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I guess karaoke brings everyone together.

Kayaking

The storm and thunder pretty much continued throughout the night, so we didn't get a goods sleep. I woke up early in the hope that there would be a sunrise, went outside on the top deck, only to be disappointed. I waited there for a few minutes, no sun so went back to bed for an hour or so. There was suppose to be a Tai Chi lesson this morning, but due to the weather, that got cancelled. We got called to breakfast and they were serving noodles, they asked me if I wanted some, but I couldn't face eating them for breakfast, so politely declined. Luckily, they had some toast, fruit and juice, so I was happy enough. It was raining again, so we didn't know what we'd be doing this morning. We thought kayaking would be cancelled, but Tom said we are still going. We got our ponchos on and got in the dinghy, ready to go kayaking in the rain.

We got dropped off at a floating fishing village, and it was time to say goodbye to Frank and Rosalind as they were on the 3 day cruise and were being transferred to another boat. There were some cute little puppies on there and a couple of German shepherd dogs too. We didn't actually get to spend time here, we just docked up to get the kayaks. Some were one man kayaks, some were 2. I'm not strong enough to kayak on my own, so I opted to share with John, make him do all the hard work! It was only drizzling a bit now, so it wasn't too bad going kayaking. We were able to get closer to the limestone karsts and we had about an hour to kayak around, so we just went around exploring ourselves. I tried rowing the ore for a bit, but then my arms get tired, so I take a break, let John carry on, then row for a bit each time. It's good exercise though!

Eventually, the rain stopped, so it was more enjoyable kayaking. We nearly ran into a little fishing boat, which i'm sure a family lived on. They had their clothes hanging out the back to dry, and a little cover and there was a mother, father and their little girl. I wish we had more time to see things like this, as we've not really cruised around the islands that much. It's still great to see parts of Halong Bay by kayak though. You can reach parts that the boat wouldn't be able to get to. We also passed some smaller caves, and it looked like there were some dragon teeth hanging down from the ceiling of the cave, which was cool. We also saw some offerings in another little cave. We covered quite a big area in an hour, so if you had longer, you could see much more, although I think an hour kayaking is enough for me.

Cooking lesson

After we finished kayaking, we returned to the boat to check out of our room. We sailed past some of the most beautiful sections of Halong Bay as the space between the karsts was much narrower so they looked lovely. We went on the top deck for about half and hour and the sun came out for us. We looked out at all the really cool rock formations, admiring them, and taking it all in. We even managed to do a bit of sunbathing and it actually got too hot. But it was short lived, the sun didn't stay out for too long. So we went back downstairs, got a drink and waited for the cooking class to begin.

Fried spring rolls

So once everyone came to the restaurant, Tom showed us how to make spring rolls. He said the ingredients consist of vermicelli rice noodles, spring onions, mushrooms, carrots, pork. You could probably make your own to suit, putting in whatever ingredients you like. So he got the rice paper, put it onto a damp cloth, this will stop the paper from sticking. Then he mixed up all the ingredients, minus the pork for the veggies, and took some and put it onto the paper. He rolled it up into a sausage shape and then folded the paper around it. Then he got everyone to have a go at making them. John had a go, it wasn't as easy as it looks, but he did it. Once they were all made, Tom sent them to get deep fried. They will be served with lunch. It was good to be shown how to make spring rolls, and i'm sure we'll try making them when we go home.

After we made the spring rolls, we sat down on the table for lunch. A couple who were not in our group got moved onto our table, they were an English couple. We got chatting to them over lunch and they seemed really nice. We waited for our spring rolls, in the meantime, there was yet more seafood coming out for lunch, and the food kept coming. We all got our spring rolls and they were delicious. We will definitely be making them when we go home. After lunch, we got dropped off at the port and waited for the bus to take us back to Hanoi. It was another 3 hour journey, and we stopped halfway at the same shop they took us to on the way. We slept for some of the journey, I was shattered, I couldn't keep my eyes open. We returned to the same hotel in Hanoi that we stayed in before Halong Bay. We got an early night, as tomorrow we fly to Beijing.