I’ve just spent 3 days with no internet access (!!!!!) in Halong Bay, North Vietnam hence the lack of communications.

Day One – Said goodbye to the guys I had been travelling with up to Hanoi, although I will see some of them again along the way as our paths cross in a couple of places. The bus to Halong picked me up around 8:30am and after a 4 hour drive we reached Halong Bay. Checked in for the boat and were then whisked away on a tender to a small boat which I believe holds about 40 people.

First thing on board was lunch and that was excellent. It was after lunch that I discovered my bag hadnt made it on board and I was having visions of never seeing it again.

A few hours later we reached a village that was built on the water. We took small paddle boats over to the village and had a walk around. It was a bit surreal but then everything in Vietnam seems to be like that.

Back on board, my luggage had shown up which was a very pleasant surprise. We chilled until dinner and were again fed magnificently.

I went to bed relatively early as my leg has been playing up and I wanted to rest it as much as possible on this bit of the trip.

Day Two – Breakfast at 7am (I skipped Tai Chi at 6:15am as did most of the boat). Whilst the others went off cycling around a village I took the opportunity of having a quiet day, reading, planning other bits of my trip and generally relaxing with my leg up in the air.

Dinner was again, really good but post dinner entertainment was quite amusing. One of the passengers started doing card tricks and by the end of it we were playing games. Seven of us ended up playing “Hello Harry” – whenever you made a mistake you got a charcoal mark on your face. Eventually this just turned into charcoal face painting – juvenile but funny 🙂 Another source of merriment was the name of the Vietnamese currency which led to such classic statements as “Put your Dong on the table and we’ll have a game of texas hold’em” … OK… it was funny at the time.

Day Three: Breakfast at 7am. Again, tried to rest the leg, back to the dock around midday and back into Hanoi at 4pm to catch a plane to Ho Chi Minh… Arrive Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) at around 1am after the worst flight ever. A screaming baby for 2 hours and the parents didnt even try to calm it down. Now in the hotel. Not impressed. No window and smells musty. Will consider what to do about it in the morning.