Ha Long Pearl Hotel Halong Bay

... we've eaten since leaving the UK. Better not get too used to it, I'm sure we'll be back to the cheapest noodles in town when we leave the boat! <br><br>After lunch we had arrived at one of the 1900 odd lime stone islands. We had a local guide that took us round the beautiful caves in the island complete with a number of stalactites and stalagmites. The local guide had great fun pointing out different formations in the rocks and telling us his ...

... the organised trip the next day and slept well. Then most of the day on this wonderful deserted beach, except for a fabulous bar - heaven!! Pina colados - totally horizontal - warm sea!! Sadly pick up to return to Hanoi at 2.15pm, so the hydrafoil back and then a 2 hour bus ride back to the city. <br><br>We went to a good Jazz club in the evening to end our stay, then a short day wandering before leaving for the night train to Hue City.

... old resident who graduated high school on the mainland wants to train with the teachers so that she can help the children when the teachers are not on site. The three of us opened the new power strips I brought and began charging the laptops. <br><br>The laptops are being stored for now in the small "Pearl Shop." Tuyen and I were planning to sleep on the floor of the shop too. The shop has a reliable ...

... it&#8217;s beautifully serene. We did later learn though that the night we had been out there, there had been a ship wrecked due to the weather and a bad anchoring position. There were a number of fatalities and on hearing this we were highly relieved that all we had woken up to in the morning (asides from sore heads in a number of cases) was the gentle lull of the engine and the lapping of water on the side of the boat as we had started moving. I actually woke up as some one had ...

... Peter and Ty Tran boarded the lovely Indochina Junk Princess at 7:30 AM in Hong Gai. Of course, the most important cargo, the heavy overweight suitcase from America was on board too. The VVV is about 40 Kilometers from the mainland. The cruise to the village took about 2 and 1/2 hours each way. It was a beautiful day, blue sky, mid-80's with a nice breeze. The scenery is like nothing most people have ever seen before. Halong Bay is the most spectacular ...

... then to be collected to get on<br>to the boat. We were meant to have a casual motor back looking at all the caves and exploring, but no we just tanked all the way back, all the other boats were exploring the caves and we passed them all, to get to the harbor early. We waited for all the other tours to finish to then go have lunch in a near by restaurant, which was the nicest meal in the three days. We sat on a bumpy mini bus for 3.5 hours, which was absolute torture, to then ...

... that just happened. A scooter got hit by a truck. We never saw the victim, but by the sound of those who did, we were glad we did not see it. Okay, after 3 " Scooter-Countries" there had been 1 accident. Unfortunately.....but we always wondered why we did not saw more accidents. Lets hope it stays that way..!! The bus was on time and dropped us off in the " Alley" and we had 1 more night in Vietnam. We were a bit tiered of the whole trip and the " early morning kayak ...

... to Ha<br>Noi by eating a perfect Vietnamese sandwich (Bahn My) and beer in<br>front of Hoan Kiem Lake and taking a tour of the Old Quarter on a<br>traditional cyclo. <br><br><br><br><br>We're writing this<br>entry on a train. We're taking an overnight train to Sa Pa, a<br>mountain region in the North. This is our first overnight train<br>trip!! And it's not bad &#8211; very small quarters &#8211; no frills &#8211;<br>but clean enough. Mike's on ...

... petite bourgade tranquille et ben non, c est une ville assez touristique avec un front de mer kitch. Cela s est malheureusement repercute sur les habitants, qui sont de loin pas aussi sympathiques qu a Sa Pa. Ils essayent tout le temps de nous avoir, que ce soit pour acheter a manger, dormir ou organise un tour. Le tourisme de masse a malheureusement deja laisse ses traces ici :-(<br>Que cela ne tienne, on loue des motos le lendemain pour parcourir l ile et ...

... been 20 other Junks there. We caught a smaller boat to take us to the caves. Terry and Shirl stayed behind as we were told it was a fair hike to get to the caves and out again but this was untrue and they would have made it no problems. Pity, cause the inside of the caves were pretty cool and they were massive. Better then the alowee caves in Clare i'll tell ya. We then met Terry and Shirl at some float houses to take a Kayak around to a water cave. Shirl ...