Relaxing - not!

Caught out this morning. I am usually quite clued up about what lies in store for us each day, but it was a huge surprise to find out that Halong Bay is actually a four hour drive from Hanoi! I had never looked, somehow just assumed it was a couple of hours. Anyway, it gave us plenty of time for scooter spotting!

Some interesting observations on the way:
They eat grasshoppers here.
Houses are very narrow. Like Amsterdam, the tax is on the length of the frontage
Shops often only sell one thing. Like crash helmets. Birdcages. Brass bowls. Belts. Can't imagine how they make a living.
In the middle of nowhere someone laid out a tarpaulin at the side of the road and was selling shoes.
The Vietnamese word for 'having a pee at the side of the road' is the same as the word for 'diabetic'

We arrived at a dock that looked like our worst nightmare - thousands of people and masses of huge boats - but we were in the wrong place and soon found ourselves on a small wooden 'junk' with only 15 passengers, a cute cabin for two with en suite wet floor shower room, a pretty dining room and loungers on the top deck. The boat is only five years old but built all out of wood (John will approve) and made to look old.

Our itinerary said we'd have delicious seafood lunch and indeed it was - for Frances. I don't like shellfish, though I do like fish, and Hai said he had told them this, so obviously the message didn't get across. Meals are either everything brought together, or lots of small courses. Lunch was the latter. 1. two large prawns. 2. two crab stuffed shells. 3. two oysters 4. squid and octopus salad. 5. four chicken kebabs - I had three! 6. two fish steaks with rice and green veg. 7. watermelon.

Halong Bay itself is beautiful, though the water is not emerald if the sun doesn't shine. BUT - it is so busy! Boats of all sizes everywhere you look, hard to get a photo without one in. lots of boats do day trips. We were taken to see some spectacular caves, along with a thousand others, there was a queue to get in, round and out. We didn't expect to get the Bay to ourselves, but this is just mass tourism ruining the very thing people are here to see. Next we went to a tiny beach - we had been told we could swim and so you could, in a tiny cordoned off area of the water. We chose instead to climb up around 450 steps to the top of one of the limestone outcrops that has a viewpoint at the top and managed to get a few hazy photos. Down for an ice cream and then the rain came down. Back to the haven of our wee cabin for a shower and relax for an hour before dinner.

Good dinner - first course was four prawns this time, but I asked for something else and got a sort of pancake which was fine. The rest was fine too, at one point the staff put all the lights out to bring in plates of spring rolls (nearly as good as ours!) the plate decorated with a tea light under a oineapple skin! Bit over the top but there you go. Chicken, rice and green veg, fruit to follow. Too much food, we are stuffed. We are a bit disgruntled that we have to have breakfast at 7am and check out of the room at 9.30am, presumably so they can get it ready for the next lot. All in all not what we had been anticipating for two weeks,

Scooter diary: by special request there are a few photos here.

Large window frames (we think)
Sacks of rice
5 cages of dogs - alive
A huge block of ice, dripping everywhere, covered in a floral blanket
The best of the trip and couldn't get a shot of it - a scooter with about 5m of corrugated metal strips, hanging over the front of the scooter, and about two thirds down the length of the metal there was another set of wheels lashed to the metal!! Poised to get a shot as we passed him, he foiled us by stopping for a pee!! (hence the conversation above)