Despite last nights smugness at watching the lighting in the distance we woke this morning to some rain of our own which although light was enough to make Wendy think the boat was sinking on hearing the splash of water. She was not the only one to be disturbed by the rain though as one of the guys from Finland had his sleep cut short after deciding to sleep up on deck, can hardly blame him giving that they expected the two Finnish guys to sleep in the same 1 bedroom cabin barely big enough for a single person.
Early enough to still have the taste of toothpaste in my mouth we climbed into the kayaks once more for a paddle to another inlet only accessible by a small cave cut into the cliff. The inlet was full of coral and some small fish with the nosiest crickets I've yet heard in the undergrowth covering the cliff faces which from the sounds of them must have been the size of gorillas.
Back on the boat the group split with the two guys from Finland and the family continue on to Cat Ba island where they would spend the night with the rest of our motley crew returning to shore. With the weather forcing us to stay below decks (we were actually luckily in that yesterday was the best weather they've had all week here) we amused our selves by playing some board game we found which the French couple were embarrassed to admit was French after it emerged as the most pointless game ever created, still didn't stop us playing for nearly 2 hours though - ah the hectic life of travellers. Back on dry land we had lunch in a restaurant in Halong City along with a couple from Australia who had hitched a ride on our boat back to shore. One of the Australians had a bit of moan about there being no fresh milk for her coffee after the staff said they were out as I peered curiously at my mango milkshake.
The bus ride back to Hanoi was pretty uneventful although I did spot a dog being put on some scales just outside of Halong City which surely can never be a good thing for the dog in a country such as Vietnam. Back in Hanoi I had just a few hours till the bus left to Hue but unfortunately there was a power cut in the hotel so my plan of spending the time online floundered but I did meet Rob from Holland who was also hanging around waiting for the bus. With little to do we spent the time sitting by candle light in the front lobby being unsuccessfully coerced into singing for the hotel staff which I'm sure in the end was far better for all involved that I didn't.
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