We booked into a place at Tuang chau , the harbour where most of the tours leave from to see the islands of Halong Bay. The area is famous for appearing in many films and tv programmes. As always it's not holiday time we are told and that's why the place looks closed!
Like many places in Vietnam we are not sure if Hotels are under construction or have fallen into disrepair.
We booked onto a " cruise" for 3 days, the cruise was strange, a feeling of the company trying too eek out what should be a day around the islands. The bottom line is we met some very nice people who made the 3 days most enjoyable.
A visit to cat baa island was included for most of Saturday which was a great bonding session for the 10 of us in our group. Cycling on the Sunday after getting up for a 7 am start was too much like hard work for me so we just chilled and let the rest build up a sweat.
Back to our Hotel on Sunday and then Monday a taxi ride into Halong Bay Town to get the last of Fionas Vaccinations, thank god, it's kind of marred our time in Vietnam despite the medical staff being very efficient and the whole process being much better than the NHS back home!
 |
| Tourist Hell, waiting for our cruise |
 |
| The famous Islands |
 |
| The crew having a hit on a Bong |
 |
| Jungle Cat Baa island |
 |
| Cave |
 |
| Still a cave |
 |
| Beach scene, so Bizzare |
 |
| Never completely clear |
 |
| Relaxing |
 |
| After a while it all looks the same |
 |
| Floating Bar |
 |
| Arty |
 |
| Our new friend Jeremy and possible digs in Australia |
 |
| Same old |
 |
| Arty |
 |
| Near our digs, bizzare |
 |
| Scene from our hotel |
 |
| Ferry Boat |
 |
| And Sunset from our room |
 |
| Halong |
 |
| Nice town |
 |
| Going to the Mall |
 |
| Nice view from the town |
 |
| Strange advert |
 |
| Waiting for our taxi back |
Tuesday we said goodbye to our new friend Laura (her English name ) who's mum runs the hotel, she spoke good English and we spent a couple of nights chatting with her whist she looked after her sister. We then got the Ferry back to Cat Ba, we saw almost as much on the 45 minute trip as we did on the " cruise" Onto the island and passed all the places where we visited with out tour at the weekend.Booked into a super Hotel called The May Legend ( obviously named after my Aunt May !) Couple of days chilling before getting another ferry to take us back to Haiphong for another night
 |
| Ferry again |
 |
| I was a bit nervous when they didnt pull the gang plank up |
 |
| Nice Knife Mr |
 |
| The islands again |
 |
| Corran ferry? |
 |
| Posing |
 |
| And us |
 |
| Beach |
 |
| Not a bad view |
 |
| Not a good view |
 |
| Hotel at night |
 |
| Beach in the day |
 |
| Fiona posing |
 |
| Fashion shoot |
 |
| The stars |
 |
| And me |
We left Cat Ba on another ferry and headed to the same hotel in Haphong we stayed at the week before, he ferry was ridiculous then just before we reached Haphong I had a puncture, luckily near a bike shop. Both Guys were sleeping ( a favourite pastime here in Asia) He didn't even take the wheel off and patched it in situ, it cost me less than a pound but I thought that will go down again. Into our Hotel for a nice night and then loaded the bikes in the morning, my tyre was totally flat. Luckily I carry a small pump and blew it up so we could get to a genuine Honda dealer not far away, 20 minutes later a new tube and we were on our way again, 4 pounds which was a bargain. BTW it was raining heavily just to cheer us up.
We stayed that night in Xanh Meloday resort about 40km from Hanoi, nice place and friendly staff but again apart from a work conference during the afternoon ( where someone got up to sing Karaoke) we felt like we were the only ones staying there. A long talk with the bar manager at night, even he said he was afraid of the traffic.
Saturday and the long dreaded ride into Hanoi, Fiona said it wasn't so bad but I think she is getting used to it because I didn't enjoy it one bit. Got to Tigit motorcycles to drop off the bikes , luckily I followed Fiona because my GPS was taking me to a place a mile away , the coordinates were supplied by Tigit! I would have been more pissed off because a mile in Hanoi traffic is like 10 miles anywhere else. We had done 2196km , it felt like double that!
Never been so glad to hand a bike back ever !
 |
| Crabbit on the ferry |
 |
| Getting a puncture "Fixed" |
 |
| Not sure |
 |
| Getting it done properly the next day |
 |
| Nice place |
 |
| I didn't eat much |
 |
| Lit up at night, must get cheap leccy |
 |
| Ready for the Ride into Hanoi |
 |
| Made it |
 |
| Relieved rather than Happy |
