Ats Hotel, Hanoi

... could it get?!

The cruise was great with jacuzzi bathroom, lots of great food (5 or 6 courses every time we sat down which became a bit too much.), Tai Chi on the sun deck in the mornings, kayaking and exploring caves during the day, and eating / drinking all evening. We're now on a diet!

We've now got back to Hanoi and are waiting to take out next bus trip south to another UNESCO site - Hoi An to meet up with Chris. More from there folks...

... floating villages. They even had a floating boat selling all kinds of food staff to the local people. I called it the floating "7-eleven". Around 300 tourist boats sail daily through the Halong Bay and especially at the beginning it seems to be quite crowded. But it gets a lot better after a while. In the afternoon we dropped anchor nearby a small island which had a wonderful cave to explore. So climbed that island and visited the cave. After that, we continued to sail to a ...

... Vietnamese politics so think some of it was lost on me!!

Had our last group meal as only 5 of us are continuing onto Laos and went to a really inspiring restaurant which trains kids from the streets up with a profession. Had really gorgeous food and good Mojitos to wash it down with!!

... br>
Once I made it back safely I turned to look at the rain flowing down the steps of a smaller pagoda nearby. It was moving with the speed of spilt gasoline catching fire. Unstoppable and quite remarkable!

We waited out the rain. It took about 35 minutes. Once it slowed down Hong decided we should leave. We headed for the boat. On the bottom was about 10 inches of water. The boat women scooped it out in no time.

Minutes later, in our colorful ...

... the forest canopy. From there it was off to our hotel where we would stay for the night. Lunch followed and the afternoon was spent on Monkey Island. Something that could have been great but we all went completely unprepared due to our rubbish guide, despite Suzanna’s best effort in trying to get info out of him. We went to see monkeys, maybe unsurprisingly, but our guide neglected to tell us they wouldn’t be around in the afternoon as the morning trips would have fed them so ...

... be completely refunded their money. The tour guide was also fired for his handling of the situation by the owner. So for those of you that thought Cory and I were tough to deal with, we really aren't so bad!

After telling us the story, she invited us to a place that they had raved about, called Tamarind Cafe, at 10:00. We didn't commit to it, but after we left Cory and I decided that we were somewhat obligated. So we had some dinner and went back to the guest ...

... went to see the Temple of Literature on a cyclo - basically a push bike with a seat welded to the front. Poor bloke pushing it. Me and Pete on one. We made slow progress. This was fine by us though, as the driver insisted on going headlong into constantly beeping traffic including cars, motos and buses. I mean we could have so easily been crushed. The traffic is completely mental in Hanoi - the amount of traffic and also the speed. Nothing seems to give way to anything, be it a bus ...

... just told us to go to Vieng Xai, nobody was offering their floor (like every other traveller would have you believe happens to them if they ask for help) so feeling a bit sorry for ourselves we soldiered on. There were plenty of bamboo shelters in the rice paddies but they are open on all sides and we thought it might rain again. Then I spotted the bat cave. It was one of a series of caves, the largest one, it was dry and it had plenty of bamboo (and bats ...

... for her birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MILLY), so we're off to bed, or rather she is, while I watch 'Goal TV'...

By the way, I was a bit gutted to see that Jose has left Chelsea, he was great fun and VERY entertaining... who do they reckon will be the new manager?! Cappelo? Ramos? Kerry Dixon?!

Ok, sorry for the long post today, tomorrow brings us a new day in another new country.


lots of love,


Al & Katie xx