We got up around 7am and went down to breakfast, we were getting picked up by a bus outside the hotel at 8 which was taking us to Halong Bay. We had booked on the 4* Opera cruise boat for 2 days and 1 night it was a little over our budget but we thought it would be worth it because we had be told that one of the cheaper boats sank a couple of years ago!! The bus picked us up and we were off on another dare devil journey on the road it took us about 4 hours to get up to the bay with a convenient 20 min stop off so we could be ushered into a gift shop in the hope we would buy some over priced souvenirs which you can pick up for a quarter of the price in every shop in Hanoi, you could even buy a life sized lion carved from marble! When we eventually got to the harbor we hopped on a little ferry to take us about a mile out to where the Opera was anchored. It was a little misty and not overly warm but the sea was like a mill pond and the view was amazing, hundreds of little islands jutting up out of the sea it looked like something out of a Bond movie! We boarded the boat and were met with some friendly staff and a welcome drink, after which we sat down for a feast of food. Feeling rather full we were shown to our cabins we were told to get ready as we were going to go and visit a floating village. The village was literally floating about on the sea between these massive limestone islands. We were told the village was over a hundred and sixty years old (I don't think polystyrene and plastic 45 gallon drums which the houses were floating on were invented back then though). We were given the option of a canoe or a bamboo boat to go and look round the village and explore some of the islands. We went for the canoe and set off to explore! We went on a big round trip of the surrounding islands and we enjoying ourselves that much that we lost track of time and by the time we got back everyone was on the boat ready to go back to the ship! 
After a shower and a change of clothes we went up to the restaurant where they showed us how to make and cook Vietnamese spring rolls, after which we had some dinner where we met a Canadian couple (Scot and Brandy) who we talked to for the rest of the night.   The next morning we were up for breakfast at 7am then off to see Sung Sot cave or the surprising cave as they called it, and it definitely lived up to it's name. We got there and walked up several steps to get to the first of three chambers. It was fairly small but the stone was carved out into alsorts of weird shapes with massive Stalactites and Stalagmites all over the place. The next chamber was about double the size of the last and it had a fresh water lake inside it, one of the Stalactites had a rock the shape of a monkey on it apparently, couldn't really see it myself but.... In the next chamber we were met by the surprise!! A 4ft phallic stalactite with a bulge at the bottom of it sticking out the side of a rock. The funniest bit was directly in line with it was a crater in the roof of the cave. An old French lady didn't understand the joke and the guide explain to her that it was like a cannon! The next surprising thing about this chamber was its size it was vast, easily 500ft long and 200ft high in places and some of the shapes that had formed over the years were spectacular. The only thing that let it down slightly was the use of different coloured back lighting and black and white penguin bins dotted about??
Back to the boat for some dinner and back to Hanoi for the night. We have enjoyed our stay but unfortunately, and I don't mean to be picky but, the Vietnamese idea of 4* isn't quite the same as ours and I think we paid a little much for what we got but all in all a worth while experience.