Halong Spring Hotel Halong Bay

... said, we did get a boat ride to the amazing cave on one of the some 1900 islands which was HUGE and spectaular. It's a real wonder. We often questioned whether it was made made because of the fantatic formations of the walls and stagalites. Unfortunately the cave was decorated with chessy coloured lights and a fake fountain... but once you get past the exploit, it's really enjoyable.<br>After we say ...

... took a tumble and gave herself a nasty bruise the following day...no recollection of this though! Lesson learnt - stick to dancing on the ground! <br><br>The following day everyone on the boat looked totally worse for wear and that morning we were taken to our second night's accommodation - a place affectionatly known as Castaway Island - our own private beach to work our way though the hangover. The accommodation itself was open bamboo huts with mattresses laid ...

Tuyen and the teachers will teach the children in the early morning. The Indochina Junk boats bring their overnight guests to the village each day about 9:00 AM for no more than 1/2 hour. Then the boats head back to the mainland where the van to Hanoi picks up the tourists at noon. This is the schedule that Mark and I experienced in February, 2009 when I first visited the Vong Vieng Village.<br><br>Tuyen needs to return to the mainland with the tourist ...

... boat docks. Tuyen and I worked on planning the next few days. We emailed our ideas for a poster about the VVV OLPC Laptop Project and for a Certificate to give the Teachers after the teacher training, to Nguyet and her IT team in Hanoi to work on for us. I can't believe what they came up with on such short notice. Thank you Nguyet! Gangsters, I will post the files on the VVV Project page in the OLPC Wiki asap so that others can use them for ideas ...

... next to him instead of the road. In the back we thought that he had taken a fancy to him but when we arrived outside the hotel the real reason became apparant. The real reason the cabbie was looking was because he was checking out the dodgy meter on the dashboard - it read 150,000 VND which was about 100,000 too much!!! On the street we had a 5min argument with the dodgy cabbie getting the hotel staff involved on our side before he left with the 50,000 we offered him. Excitement ...

... we can gather many hotels use this company. <br><br>It was a bit of a worry whether we would go as the last three days there had been a typhoon in Ha Long Bay so all tours had been closed. Luckily we were able to go, a bit delayed by the rain in the morning we headed off at 0900 instead of 0730. The bus takes 3.5 hours to get to the bay, by this<br>time the sun was out. <br><br>After waiting half an hour to get our passports sorted with the captain we boarded our boat ...

Oct the 2nd....<br><br>The one were we had great weather, great company,and a goooooooooooooood time..!!! ( almost Boonoonoonos..) !!!<br><br>Breakfast was ready...and David made us an extra cup of coffee. It was 7.35 and I needed an ATM machine quickly as our tour host would pick us up at 8. I ran like Forrest Gump and made it 1 minute earlier than 8 o´clock. But our tour-host Fung was already jumping up and down. " Why did you not do this last night?" He sort of shouted...Well I ...

... downstairs on the lower deck near the water &amp; is small but lovely with cane beds &amp; wooden floors. We headed out towards the stunning karst mountains looming out of the ocean like humps on a dragons tail. There are 3000 islands here &amp; they have managed to name 2000 of them!<br><br>The weather is a bit dreary &amp; looks like it may rain but the scenery was ...

... br>We cruise into Ha long Bay and well, what to say really - it's pretty incredible. Massive limestone crags rise out of the water covered in green, and the thing is, they're much bigger than I expected and the bay itself is pretty extensive - actually, it's huge. So, even though the harbor was rammed with boats you still get the feeling that you get the bay to yourself most of the time.<br><br>Our first stop off was at the modestly named 'amazing cave' which lived up to it's name ...

... We booked our Ha Long Bay tour with Kangaroo Cafe, as we've read that they are the only ones who charter their own boats rather than acting merely as a middle person. We were not disappointed with our junk - it was a huge 20 person traditional junk with deluxe fittings, as there were only 12 of us it was extremely spacious. <br><br><br>Ha Long Bay is a stunning ...