Ha Long shall we stay?

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  Halong Bay, Vietnam
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

The cat is what i would now call 90% dead. we get up and watch more Musical Soap with the girl, the storyline is now very 'juicy', as i would say- many characters in love with one girl, she doesnt like any of them, but is in fact in love with her third cousin, twice removed, who is in fact her father...that sort of thing. Get on a bus to take us to Ha Long, with- Quiet German Couple, Sick Asian Couple (she was sick in a bag 5 minutes in, then promptly fell asleep on his shoulder), and Entire Family inc. Grannies and Small Boys x2. Fabulous. On the way we make a stop off, something that has become commonplace- its at a handicapped centre, where disabled people make stuff and you buy it at extortionate prices. dont buy anything, unsurprisingly, and we move on to Ha Long Bay, which is full, AGAIN of over-large Americans. squeexze our way through and find, wait for it, 'The Dream Voyage'" (barf), our Junk that is anything but. its wooden and polished and has a dragon on the front, and sunwarmed loungers on the top deck, and a wilting palm in a pot as token greenery. Inside the tables are laid with napkins in the shape of boats and there are glasses for WINE! thank the lordy ong Quiet Germans are on the boat, along with Old  German Retired, Evidently (OGRE) and Bangkok teachers asscoiation ( a couple from the international school who quizzed us about the UK educational system. HEllo? were out here to get AWAY from it. pfft) The coolest kids on the boat were some malaysians on holiday. It was like hanging out with teenagers, wahooo. because obviously i dont do that enough right? One of them is the head of the malaysian commonwealth, who tells us about how hes met the queen, his brother is their, and his niece and her husband. we share more than a few laughs (and drinks) with them.
Anyway, we eat a scrumptious seafoody lunch with OGRE who says nothing. and then we visit some caves. Ha LOng bay is famous cos its full of 1000 little islands with inlets and greenery and stuff, all very beautiful. except it was kind of like safari, where you justr see Jeeps, cos we ended up admiring the boats quite alot. The caves were all lit up with jazzy lights and there were special formations that were so ''obviously'' elephants and the likes...DIno, the funny guy stole the laser pointer fro m our guide and pointed out many 'saggy bums' and the likes. We had an icecream. wasnt as good as a fanny one. but it was nice. Then we went kayakin, took a km tripout to Cat Ba island, and back, which took longer than expected...Han ended up with the guide in the bac of hers, who was useless, tired after about 2 minutes and a dead weight. very amusing. for me and ho. Had some Din which was equally fishy and good, watched an awfully dubbed horror movie (all characters were voiced by one man) so it was more of a comedy, and looked at the moon. We accidentally stole the only double room on the boat, as we got first dibbs due to the fact that there are three of us and only 2 person rooms. i think ALL of the couples were slightly annoyed! hahaha!
SLept well, up early to find that despite the fact we are surrounded by water, we have none. wonderful. Dino chouruses 'GOODMORNINGVIETNAM'every 10 or so minutes and we begin our trip back to the harbour....and to hanoi. Eat in a restaurant before we go bac, food isnt so great, but there is a massive Vat of Snake wine (complete with Bird and feathers) that you can buy shots to...we didnt. get the bus back to Hanoi, stopping at a different disabled centre. Why oh Why?

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