Baywatch

* Friday and Saturday

So it was the big trip with the ladzzzzzzz. We met at the Ocean Tours Office for 08:00 and then got on our bus to Ha Long Bay. Our friendly guide Tinh introduced himself and we knew that he was going to give us a wicked trip! The bus took 4 hours and after the initial banter, everyone pretty much snoozed the whole way there. When we arrived in Ha Long Bay, we were transferred to another bus to the quiet dock some way along the coast. A nice touch. However, one thing Tinh could not arrange was the weather. Ha Long Bay isn't famous for being 100% sunny and we had mist and drizzle. This did end up working to our advantage later on as it made the 2000 of islands look eerie and haunted...

So at the dock, we transferred to the 3rd mode of transport, a little boat to get out to the Junk boat to begin our cruise with lunch.

Now, we knew we'd paid a little more than some people would of for the two days (we paid $100 some backstreet operators can do you a trip for $60) but we were all a little staggered by the quality of the boat. It was wooden and had a big dragon on the front. It was well presented and decorated like a swanky old galleon. At first we all ran around the boat taking pictures like someone was about to collect up all the islands and take them away. It was brilliant and the views were misty and haunted...

After an hour, we were called for lunch. We were all staggered at the 5* lunch we received. Each of us received a massive crab each, more prawns than you could shake a shark at, spring rolls, squid and fresh fruit. Big thumbs up to all that!

We soon transferred ourselves outside to the deck and sat and had a rather civilized coffee...

And watched the scenery unfold around us...

We even had time for an obligatory "Amy and Rob" photo...

Around 16:00 we arrived at a lagoon where yet another boat was waiting for us with some kayaks! This was our afternoon activity. It was so fun getting amongst it all.

Tinh told us about the legend of Ha Long Bay. Thousands of years ago, the Chinese looked like they were going to invade Vietnam by boat (consequently Tinh told us that the locals call their country Việt Nam meaning "Viet Men" - Nam is Vietnamese for Man). The Vietnamese Dragons of Ha Long Bay decided that they would drop their dragon pearls, (that they keep in their mouths - must make eating quite hard), into the sea. These turned into the 2000 of islands in Ha Long. The Chinese then tried to invade but became confused and lost in the misty islands and the local warriors destroyed their army. I loves a story.

Conversely, he also told us the geological story behind the islands. Millions of years ago the islands would have been underwater. Then the tectonic plates moved, lowering the sea level and pushing some of them upwards. Not as interesting story I didn't think. No dragons in it.

We paddled for about an hour and went through a few caves. It was serene and fun.

Tinh had told us that there were monkeys on some of the islands we were around. He hadn't seen them very often. But then on the way back to the boat, he quickly signaled to us, we all paddled over and in the trees, you could see a monkey just sitting their, living his life. It was amazing. The monkey got a bit startled as we continued to stare and climbed away up the hill side. Triple thumbs up to all that!

It was beginning to get a little dark now and we transferred onto yet another boat to take us to a private island stay for the evening. The sea was getting a little rougher as the islands started to get more sparse and for the first time that day I began to feel very sea sick. I shut down all unnecessary systems and slept until we arrived at the island. No harm done really. Amy didn't feel to bad and mucked about with the boys, even performing some brave stunts on the side of the boat. Show off.

We arrived on the island around 18:30 and went to our 3 room beach bungalow. The island was fantastic with a top capacity of 28 people plus staff. The rooms were satisfyingly basic and we felt quite Robinson Crusoe. Of course, Mr Crusoe may not of had a pool table, but we did...

And he may not of been served the best dinner of food for along time... Can't knock the food on this trip.

We had few quiet beers and some nice chats with the two French men who were on our trip with us. They were good guys and to be honest they were very patient with our group banter and loudness! Then it was off to bed. Tinh kindly told us not to store any food or snacks in our room. We asked why, (knowing blooooming well why but expected him to dumb it down a bit!), and he said "Rats". Grant has a good old fashioned Rat phobia and Ame doesn't get on with them too well, but hey it's a wild island. You've got to expect a few rats now again. Me and Ame slept perfectly with our ear plugs in but Grant managed to feel a little stalked by them all night. He needs to man up. Heehee.

In the morning we got up and left the hut for brek...

...and had a tiny walk on the beach...

...before heading down to the port to get our 15 minute boat over to Cat Ba Island for our days activities: Hospital Cave and biking. More later... So as we are about to get on the boat, a lot of ooing and arring was going on and it turned out the boats battery was flat. Not a problem. Just been 30 mins to charge it up on the generator. So we waited on the pier.

Interestingly, someone had already put one of the island's German Shepherds on the boat.

We asked Tinh why, we said "to eat". He then laughed and said he was joking but you can't be too sure in Vietnam. We've seen char-grilled dogs on the back on motos in Hanoi. Pretty shocking for us soft pet loving foreigners. He then, told us that she was being taken to a restaurant on Cat Ba to be a pet and we'd see her later. We believed him. Thousands wouldn't. But poor old doggy felt a little abandoned and we watched her pace up and down the boat until eventually jumping in the water and swimming to shore. It was hilarious as 10 minutes later, soggy doggy gets thrown in the boat with us.

We were over to Cat Ba in no time and in yet another bus heading to the bike shop and the hospital cave. During the Vietnam war, this secret hospital was used to patch up around 150 Vietnamese soldiers at a time. The US never knew about it until after the war.

Inside the cave they had made concrete corridors and rooms. They would have had kitchens, bedrooms, war rooms etc. In the main big part of the cave they had a swimming pool and cinema! All quite odd. Obviously we took it all very seriously....

Then, it was on for the 14km bike ride to lunch at the other end of Cat Ba. It was drizzling a little hard at this point and I really needed some windscreen wipers for my glasses. At first it was a pleasure biking along the flat and going down hill.

But I almost died cycling up the 3 hills we needed to conquer. I don't think I'm made for biking. I'll stick to kayaking next time. Naaaa, I enjoyed it really. It was excellent.

We arrived at our lunch restaurant, all knackered. We threw down lunch and then headed to the fast boat to another port along from Ha Long Bay. In 30 minutes time we were on a bus back to Hanoi.

So 10 modes of transport, some fantastic activities, some fancy lunches, a private island and of course a few chuckles. It was a brilliant trip and Ocean Tours is well worth looking up if you go Ha Long Bay. It was great to do something as a group and an excellent last hurrah for the Siem Reap building crew.