South East Asia Tour 2013 with the bikini babes

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Sat 12th - The car collected us to take us to Halong Bay to board the boat. This is the trip that I have spent the last 6 months researching and planning as a surprise. I knew exactly what was to happen but Louise or Corrine didn't and there was an extra surprise for Louise to come at a certain point of the trip.

It took us 3.5 hours to get to Halong Bay as I'd arranged us a Private car 😊 rather than the bus with everyone else. We then boarded a small boat and Louise was totally clueless about what our boat would look like. As we boarded the bigger boat we were all surprised as we were greeted by our man in a mask banging a traditional drum as a welcome. We were introduced to our cruise Manager (Tony) and then given some time to unpack and familiarise ourselves with the boat and our rooms. Louise asked how many more people were on the boat and Tony told her fourteen. There were Eleven crew and the three of us. She couldn't believe it and Tony told her that the other people had cancelled although this was a lie on my behalf as I had chartered the cruise just for us.

We had some lunch which was lovely and spent some time sunbathing on the top deck as we made sail for the rocky outcrops of Halong Bay. The area is beautiful and covered in 1000's of small steep sided islands that are wooded and luscious green in colour. After sunbathing we went Kayaking for an hour. Louise took a guide who ended doing most of the paddling as he was an expert whilst Corinne and I zig zagged across the bay and went round in the odd circle due to our inability to keep the kayak straight. During the trip I snapped my oar meaning the guide had to take Louise's and give it to us meaning that any small amount of rowing Louise had done now wasn't being done at all. Obviously she was very pleased about this and she just sat back and laughed at us struggling. I think we probably covered about twice the distance of Louise's boat due to our zigzagging.

We then went back to the boat and climbed to the top which seemed about 15 ft in the air and jumped into the sea twice. It seemed really high up and I hit the water at speed. My legs were like jelly after. Louise even got a bruised thigh from the jump!

We then got ready for dinner and Louise kept commenting about how this was perfect and the trip of a lifetime as she had done throughout the day which made me feel really smug.

Prior to dinner we went to top deck and had a spring roll making class before eating them... Yum! We then had a a dinner that consisted of about 6 separate courses and was all beautifully prepared and presented excellently. Clam chowder is lovely.

After dinner we had drinks and spent the evening enjoying cocktails. Louise went to bed early and this gave me the perfect opportunity to discuss the finer points of Louise's surprise the next day and how Corrine would say she had arranged a nice meal for us as a present.

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