Phosphorescent

Hello from Hoi An Vietnam!

Sorry again for the lack of blogs-it seems very hard to have time to sit down and tell you all about our adventures!

Firstly I will tell you all about our amazing Ha Long Bay experience. It really was one of those trips that I will remember for the rest of my life! We booked our tour with an agency called Kangaroo Cafe- (I highly recommend if any of you are in Vietnam to check them out, not only do they do great tours they do the best breakfast in Asia!) We met our group, a lovely Dutch family, a Spanish couple, a newly wed American/Australian couple and two fellow Brits called Jenny and Pat. The bus journey was around 4 hours long to Ha Long Bay and we got to see some great views of the city and the more rural areas. Arriving at the dock we all got giddy with excitement when we saw our ship- it looked like an old pirate ship and we really felt like we were off on an exciting expedition! They fed us a HUGE lunch, bringing out about 8 courses including fresh crabs, prawns, salads and noodles. After lunch we were shown to our rooms on the boat which were spacious, lovely and clean. We freshened up, sat on the front of the ship and enjoyed the journey through the bay to the "amazing caves". The caves were really interesting to look through but we soon felt pretty weary as there were about a million other tourists there and it was SO hot we all looked like we had taken a shower! Our guide realised that we all needed a bit of a break and a cooling down so we got back on the boat- anchored for the day and spent the rest of the afternoon jumping from the top of the boat into the warm sea! The whole evening was lovely and we got to know our group really well over a few beers, we had another fantastic feast for dinner and the boys even took part in a spot of night fishing! Our guide told us all about this amazing coral called 'Phosphorescent Coral' that at night shimmers when you disturb it. (If you have ever seen the film 'The Beach' its the stuff that surrounds Leo and the chick when they have a little kiss in the water!) I have to admit I thought it was a bit of a myth so we all decided to see for ourselves if it was true! Laura and Stephen (the newly wed's) were brave enough to jump into the dark water first followed closely by Chris, Dan, Steph, Pat, Jenny and myself! We had two pairs of goggles that we shared around and crazily enough it was 100% true!The phosphorescent shimmered like bits of glitter when you waved your hands in the water and was really, REALLY beautiful! We all considered ourselves very lucky to have seen such a magical thing and went to bed very happy after having such an awesome day.

The next day was just as great- The boat took us to Cat Ba Island and we set off to look at some more caves. This time we were the only people there and we explored spotting bats and glittering rocks. Our guide realised that our group was getting along really well and we all liked going to places that weren't over run by tourists so he offered to take us to a different part of the bay where we could rent kayaks and find our own beaches! Apart from our little night swimming adventure this was our favourite part of the trip. We were taken to a secluded area where a guy had a little floating house surrounded by a fish farm (where the biggest fish I have ever seen lived). We all rented kayaks and after about 30minutes found a deserted beach that was completely empty. We swam in the sea again, collected a few shells and then set back off for the boat. The rest of the afternoon was spent jumping off a higher point of the boat (very scary but super fun!) and drinking beer with our new friends. We were left to our own devices for dinner and the four of us plus Pat and Jenny found a place to eat on the island where we had about a million spring rolls and great conversation.

The next day we got up early to get back on the boat to mainland, we had a buffet breakfast and I have to say 6am is a very strange time to eat noodles and soup (the Vietnamese don't do breakfast like we do!). When we got to the boat we were all greatful as the weather was amazing and we took the opportunity to do a little bit of sunbathing on the top deck. The views were incredible and we were so lucky to have perfect weather so we could see everything clearly, (apparently two days before we arrived it had been pouring down with rain and some of the tours were cancelled!). We took some photos and swapped tips with Pat and Jenny who gave us some great recommendations of places to eat/stay etc. When we reached mainland we had lunch and then set back off on the bus to Hanoi fully content with our personal wonderful trip!

After Ha Long Bay we stayed in Hanoi for another three days walking around checking out the sights and enjoying some good food (and margarita cocktails!). We decided to get an all inclusive sleeper bus ticket that you can use to travel all over Vietnam. Our first stop was Hoi An with a five hour stop over in Hue. We were all dreading the sleeper bus but when we arrived at the bus stop we were all very pleasantly surprised at the amount of space we had. The journey was fine and we felt pretty good when we arrived in Hue. We found a restaurant that served ice tea for 1000dong (about 3p!) so after about a million of them we passed the time wandering through the sculpture park until our bus was ready to leave to Hoi An.

Hoi An has been wonderful so far- we got to catch up with our friends Mike and Ellie who yet again showed us some great places to eat and took Chris and I to a beautiful beach. We have had some clothes tailored (the best being a navy blue duffel coat with gold lining and initials on the front pocket for Chris for 30pounds!) and eaten the best aubergine hot pot known to man. Next stop is Na Trang so updates soon!!!

Loads of love
E xxxx