Hanoi+Halong bay+ Cat Ba island

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We arrived in Hanoi at 4am! We managed to get up and off the train before being bombarded with taxi drivers wanting to take us....this was confusing and quite hard, but we made it to the hotel, no reservation, just fingers crossed.
We managed to get one early check in room, 2 beds for 6 of us, we had 3 to a bed and had a nap till 10am when we could have 3 to a room instead and actually have a bed each. Although we were all zonked, we were so happy with ourselves, no tour guide and many warnings from mark on how hard it would be, we did well!
when we got our rooms we showered and then luckily we had got one map off a guy on the train, so we went to a lake for lunch, it took a while as hanoi is sooo confusing, busy, and everywhere looks the same!
On our way round the busy city we bumped into karen and toni who had booked into the youth hostel. They told us of the bbq there that night and happy hour! Before heading for dinner we went to the renovated prision where the French/ Vietnamese kept US soldiers when the war was on....not too long ago and it was eiree.

We got to the youth hostel a few hours later and the girls had a burger from the bbq, but we just had a few drinks and met some people. I felt in my element, love meeting new people and there was some funny ones, not to mention the place was full of westerners- not a surprise, but still we hadn't been in a place yet where there was many more people than locals. We had jokes, stories told and songs sung as a competition who could get the biggest cheer. A guy we got to know won it...digger. We also me their group of friends, jamie, ben and andy. As we were leaving to go somewhere else we met Ron, a Canadian who was a bit lost and so joined us for some food. We went back to the youth hostel for more drinks and mingling. Bar closed at 9.30 so we moved onto a few more places, funky buddha and then loo club. This was a fun place, i danced with some vietnamese people, one girl was so over the top it was funny!

Next morning and Tom showed us a place to have brekkie, Kangaroo cafe- nice big portions! Didnt do much this day as we had got up late, but in the evening we went back to the youth hostel for some drinks to celebrate kirsten's bday and then out for dinner at the little hanoi- really nice food and a massive cake for afters. This night was pretty similar to the one previous as we took the guys and some more people from the youth hostel to the same places as the night b4, with a few more places added in- 3,000 dong beer corner was good...8p a beer!
This was also Phils last night so we gave him a good send off and kisten a good bday!

In the morning we got a bus to the halong bay.....we had a private boat on which we ate lunch and sunbathed on top deck. we sailed to some caves, had a look around, back onto the boat and then to Cat Ba island. Checked into the nice hotel and went for dinner, then Toni and Karen went with Kahn our new tour leader and did Karaoke. Everyone else was back to the hotel and into bed... TIRED!

Next morning we had a bus to another boat and had a kayak around some of the surrounding waters, this was hard work in the heat, but worth it, we sat on a beach for a bit and played in the water before we kayaked back to the boat and went to monkey island. We got off and immediately in the tree there was monkeys. we had saved 2 bananas for them and fed them. They looked ok, but Kahn had warned us not to let them get too close as they are not nice monkeys! One monkey soon turned into 4 monkeys, and they all looked a bit crazy.
One came close to tom to get banana and then charged at him, he ran an then the moneky looked at me with evil eyes and ran at me, he grabbed my leg, but i think the shriek i let out scared him off. All i could think was ''i dont want rabies!!!''

The beach on monkey island was blissful though and it looked as though it could be james bond land! Back on the boat and went back to Cat Ba island. We got a speedy ferry to the harbour in halong bay, and then off that into a bus.

This bus journey was surreal, it looked just like the roads that top gear had driven down, and we saw a bay that top gear was filmed on! hahaha

Bus went back to hanoi, we were all so tired and hot we went to kangaroo cafe for dinner and then bed.

Up in the morning and packed. This morning i was certain i wanted to throw my backpack over the balcony, it was doing my head in, it never packed well eventhough i have sent stuff home and not bought anything apart from my north face coat, which i cant get rid off! ARGH!
That day was a bit of nothing really, we were travelling in the evening so we went to the supermarket and got essentials, i also got my watch fixed, it had stopped working in Cat Ba island for no reason, but a new battery and it was ticking again! wooppeee!

Onto another overnight train again, this time 1st class....we only noticed this when we walked through the rest of the carriages and they were surprising. one carriage was wooden benches and peopl were sleeping on them, i dont know how but they were....
The train was a standard, dinner, card games and bed, but something i had never done before was the squat toilet in flip flops! NOT nice and hard work!

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