Halong Plaza Halong Bay

... gave in and went along to one of his evening classes expecting to just meet his teacher and then sit with him and help him with his work. But it turned out we were the stars of the class that night and soon found ourselves taking the class of 30 Vietnamese English students of various age and levels! It was a truely amazing experience and has made us think about taking a course in teaching English as a foreign language. One of the highlights was us singing Lionel ...

... the sizes we wanted too. In the US, this job would have taken a long time and been quite costly, comparatively.<br><br>Today I noticed something very curious on the Hong Gai streets. I saw not one but two barber shops on the street. I really mean, on the street and not inside a shop. I love the photos I took of these! <br><br>I hope you can tell that although I am working hard for this volunteer project, I am totally enjoying it here.<br><br><br>

... uncomfortable hovering over someone trying to maintain a conversation while they are 30cm above the ground and you&#8217;re not allowed to sit as you have accidentally bought from the wrong woman. So in the end you end up back at the original Bia Hoi and are forced to wave and hold a conversation over and through the multitude of bikes whizzing past. At the end of the day though it&#8217;s 10p a beer and your sure of some conversation with friends or randoms for that price too.<br> Then ...

... and labor? I bought several. The photos from the Ceremony Day are great.<br><br>I will mention for fellow travelers, how important it is to back up your photos regularly during your trip. Cameras can be stolen. In 2007, my friend, Frank inadvertently left his camera in a taxi in Vietnam and all of his elephant camp photos were lost! I back up to DVDs. Then I can use the DVD in a net cafe to upload photos to the blog and not risk losing the camera card.<br ...

... yourself in a world without Nintendo Wii.<br><br>We then sailed to Monkey Island and saw some aggressive monkeys parading around the toilet block, one threw a piece of fruit at me as I tried to take a photo, at which point I decided to head back to the beach.<br><br>We were meant to stay in a mega luxurious 1 star hotel in Cat Ba town (population 2000 approx). This is the main town in Halong Bay and serves as a centre point for all the small floating ...

... when they invited us to jump from the 3rd floor on the boat into the water. As both the American and the Candian seemed well up for it I forced myself to jump first (if only so they couldn't see the wide-eyed fear as I fell!) Once in the water I could safely bravado it up until that bloody American suggested we go again! Anyway, manliness re-assured we resumed on our way to the bay.<br><br>That night we took the French girl and the north Americans out for ...

... and exploring inside of them. We visited many Limestone caves, one of which we had the opportunity to do some spelunking. I was ****** because I had my last nice pair of khaki shorts (that I haven't already ruined) and the only nice and expensive t-shirt that I own. No, I didn't wuss out this time!! So I had to miss out on this adventure. Tara went though with some of our Australian friends that were traveling with us and ...

... 3000 limestone islands in the Gulf of Tonkin (great name!), and is one of the most popular destinations in Asia for good reason. I'll let the pictures do the explaining.... <br><br>After HLB, I changed my plans of going through Laos and on into Thailand and instead flew back to Ho Chi Min before taking a bus through to Cambodia. <br><br>Overall, I had a great month in Vietnam, great food, great people, **** weather (sometimes!), great beer and great fun. Go there!

... br>watched the sunset on the boat.<br><br>9th September<br>Woke early to<br>catch the sunrise although it was a bit cloudy so not much to see, had<br>breakfast and did some more swimming before we caught another boat to<br>go to Cat Ba island the biggest of the islands for our 2nd night. On<br>the way we stopped off at a National Park and walked around the edge of the island to a village in the middle of nowhere. We arrived and because we had booked the nicer ...

... clear that you took a ticket from the dispenser and then waited for your turn, like a Tesco delicatessen. 286 was the number on the board, 331 was the number on my ticket. A 45 minute wait ended with a blunt "No trains to Halong Bay". This set the tone for the day.<br><br>Bus it is. It was turning into an impromptu tour of Hanoi. I arrived at the public bus station fearing for myself. There was a lot of activity and no real ...