Got picked up early Friday morning for our trip to Ha Long Bay. The ride up was better than an E ticket ride at Disneyland!!! I have some amazing video footage of us dodging trucks. The driver seemed to spend alot of time on the wrong side of the road honking his horn. We did make it though and joined the other six people on our boat (The Prince II with Indochinda). We had two Aussies and a family of four from Canada. We set sail and meet our guide, Thanh and did the introductions of who we are and where we are from. Brett and Casey are from Mckay in QLD and Andy, Maggie and their children Duncan and Maddy were from Summer land (no joke) in Bristish Colombia. We had lunch on the upper ... read more

Well we have landed in Ha Noi this afternoon after a short 3hr flight from KL - a blink of the eye compared with the 11 hr marathon yesterday from Auckland. Highly recommend the Pan Pacific at KL airport - very civalised start to our trip. Very excited about finally being in Ha Noi and headed for customs where we caused a bit of a stir when we both went up to the counter without thinking. I was quickly told "one at a time" and I was hurried back behind the line by several staff. After deciding not to declare our green tea bags we were through ready to meet up with our driver who was nowhere to be seen - several young taxi drivers were all keen to take us into the city, one tried ... read more