3rd June - Halong Bay

We'd booked on a trip to Halong Bay to try and get back into the whole travelling experience and our bus came to collect us from the 'screamy' hotel at 8am. Matt was a bit nervous because the company on the bus was one that he'd read lots of bad things about but he didn't mention it because he did not want to bother me. Since one tale included a tourist having a knife pulled on him, this was probably wise.

The bus journey (bizarrely via big statue shop) to the bay was pretty nail-biting but not the scariest or most uncomfortable we were to experience in the next few days.

The boat was nicer than we expected but they would not let us check into our rooms so we weren't sure what was lurking under deck. We ate dinner around a big table as we floated around the bay and got to know some of the people who we would be sharing the next few days with.

Our first stop was Hang Sung Sot cave. It was big and had some impressive structures with coloured lights highlighting the key features. It made it look quite tacky but we didn't get to delay too long as we were shepherded around. We exited through the gift shop and had a giggle at some of the hilarious animal-shaped ornament type things decorated with fake pearls.

Next stop was a fishing village that we saw briefly as we floated past to where we could pay to go on a bamboo boat through a natural tunnel in the rock to see a lagoon. Matt and I didn't really fancy it and asked if we could go on the kayaks where we were. Apparently not. We were starting to see the importance of the itinerary.

Kayaking at the next stop was lovely and we squeezed the boats through into a nice little bay. There was a strict time limit of 20 mins so we didn't get any further but it was still really nice.

They anchored the boat in the bay so that we could go swimming. There were some really impressive jumps off the top of boat, including a few amazing backflips, but a combination of so many days without personal grooming and a fear of the sea kept me from joining in. Matt also decined and spent the time lounging on the top deck.

We were finally allowed the check into our rooms and they were really quite nice. After dinner and learning a fun new game called 'Jungle Speed', we headed back up to the top deck to watch some of our talented ship-mates play guitar and sing. They were actually really good but Matt reached his limit when 'Let it Be' was pulled out of the bag and so he headed to bed, leaving me to stay up late having fun.

Come bed time I found the room far too stuffy, the engine too noisy and the fact that the electricity kept going off and making the fan stop really annoying and so we headed up to the roof to spend a lovely night sleeping under the stars and actually being able to breathe.