Halong bay day 3

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As usual I was awake very early and I think on this it was a combination of my cold and the lightening storm out side. We eventually got up, packed and left our bags at reception and had breakfast. It was raining :-( but we didn't get too wet as we didn't have far to walk to the restaurant.



There was a power cut so it took a while for breakfast to arrive, plus the language barrier. We had breakfast, headed to the hotel to await the minibus. It arrived about 20 minutes late. Apparently it was due to the fact that the driver had got drunk last night and they couldn't wake him up and had to get a replacement driver lol.



We got taken to the boat and all climbed abroad for our voyage back to the mainland. It rained all the way back. I have to say it was a nice respite from the heat we had had the day before though.



We had to change boats again, apparently this was due to the boundaries round the islands. Only boats from the islands can sail to the islands and vice versa for the mainland. It was still raining.



The boat already had a lot of passengers on it so Lindsay and I, the English/Belarus couple and 4 Italians sat up top under cover where it was cooler. We were told by our guide that we would be having lunch on the boat whilst sailing to the mainland. It was a bit early for lunch, but hey ho. We went down to the dining area and squeezed in a table with a Spanish couple and 2 German couples. Again the food was Vietnamese.



When we neared the port we climbed on to the shuttle boat to take us to dry land and our waiting mini bus. It was still raining. The port bulking was very busy and as there were so many people on our boat our guide had to do,two runs to get us all back in dry land. We were then asked to follow another tour guide who would take us to our bus. We then were joined by more passengers and another tour guide who accompanied us on our trip back to Hanoi where we were dropped off back at our hostel. Oh and it was still raining lol



We booked in at the hostel after getting the rooms switched so Lindsay and I could stay in the same room. When we went up it looked like someone had slept in my bed some had to ask reception to change the bed. Then I found out my key fob for the electronic door wasn't working so I had to get that sorted along with putting in some washing. Finally everything was sorted.



I bumped in to Melita on my travels on the staircase and it turned out we were in the same dorm room which was cool. We will did out admin on line - booking hotels, looking at itinerary and checking in on line for flights, booking airport transfers etc.



Later we all went out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant - not a grain of rice insight lol :-) then wandered round town for awhile and then headed back to the hostel for an early night.



I was woken around 12.15am by an over amorous couple who had come back to the room for some fun time. Im woken up by the bed moving! I tried not to giggle or say anything. Later he left and around 2pm other people came back in from their night out, but I was still awake! Eventually I fell asleep and woke up around 6.30am



Xxxx

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