Halong Hidden Charm Halong Bay

... at separate tables, next to each other, just like in a restaurant, but it was on the beach. It was kind of strange!)

Later in the day, the Pinta Gold cruiser returned with a new set of passengers and the four of us were taken back to it for dinner, and for the night.

We had the option to go swimming, but after being spoiled with tropical waters in Indonesia, the water just wasn’t warm enough for me (it’s mid-winter here in ...

... would have happily spent more than double the two weeks we had along 'Nam's east coast.

Top Gear fans amongst us will remember Clarkson et al. making hard work of the journey from south to north and if you happen to watch the show in the coming weeks then it is easiest for me to say that we went to many of the places that they did.

Our starting place of Ho Chi Min City was not indicitive of how enjoyable Vietnam would become. Yes it was cheap, yes there were clubs ...

... 9.30am we stopped, a smaller boat stopped alongside us, and we all piled on board. Brilliantly the feral Irish girl and her cretinous friends weren't coming as they were only doing a two day trip, so we left them behind. Result. Soon we were sailing through the emerald blue waters of the bay, passing limestone rock formations on either side of us as well as beautiful little islands dotted with beaches, caves and mysterious forested slopes. We also saw several floating villages ...

... the middle floor contained the main eating area and bar, and the top deck had loads of sun loungers on it. We headed up to the top deck and were briefed about the day's itinerary by David, a friendly and impossibly cool Mexican bloke who was in charge of us.

As the baot began moving across the bay we first of all headed downstairs and got a beer. Lunch was ready fairly soon. Olly and I sat at a table with a couple, Matt and Christine, and got chatting; Matt was from Sunderland ...

... we hit the sack. Our room was really nice and we slept well.

Next day we woke up at 7am for fruit and egg breakfast, then set sail for a small island for a bit of mountain biking to a local village. The ride was really good and took us up through some hills and paddy fields then back down into a village. No berms or jumps unfortunately. We stopped here for half an hour and met some of the locals who were playing ...

We left Hanoi bound for a night on a junk boat in Halong Bay. We were a little dubious about what might great us at the harbor, especially given the title of the boat. It was a pleasant surprise to board a beautiful wooden ship, with individual, beautifully furnished cabins.

We were served lunch fairly quickly. Wow! The first of a number of courses was steamed prawns, moving onto crab and other wonderful seafood dishes. I think this is the ...

... time I visit Vietnam and I have had a peasant holiday. The first time I came to visit Halong, unfortunately the weather was wet and foggy because of rains so I could not see the view of Halong Bay. This time, sunny days, humor guide and funny fellow travelers makes my trip much more joyful.

Our tour operator this ...

... it’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 ...

... back packers who had boarded our bus after us were sent to a different boat and we were put on a slightly more posh boat with the oldies. There are hundreds, if not thousands of wooden style junk boats at Halong City port and ours was gorgeous. With only 12 guests aboard we were given a room on the second floor at the back with its own private balcony. Everything was clean and modern - far beyond our room on the Yangzi river cruise. The crew served us dinner ...

... doesn't win there is something seriously wrong. It really was breathtaking. After lunch we had an hour to chill out so everyone headed to the sun deck to soak in the scenery.

The junk arrived in the area in which it would be docking for the night, from there we were transferred onto a smaller boat again which would be taking us to Hang Sung Sot, which is the largest cave in Halong Bay. Looking at it from the outside it didn't look too much, but once inside I was once ...