Ha Long Bay, the Caves and Cat Ba

A three hour bus-ride with obligatory souvenir-shop stop brought us to the port of duelling ferries and the start of the seemingly least-organised tour of our trip so far! Once our captain finally finished playing bumpercars with the ferries trying to get into port and our new compsci Israeli friends had finished telling me about the delights of working with a British company like 3M, we headed out between some truly spectacular limestones karst islands. Small ports had been set up at the bottom of some, whilst others were far too steep-sided for people to visit. Two of only four functional deckchairs were commendiered by us for ample snoozing!

We made an island-stop at the cave from the party in Matrix Reloaded (well it seemed like it with all the funky lighting) though more likely it was just called Hang Dan Go, Hang Thien Cung, Hang Kom Quy, Hang Sung Sat, Hang Luon, Hang Bo Nau or Hang Trinh Nu - take your pick! The ceiling looked like some over-exaggerated artexing in concrete though I'm assured it was 100% natural. The cave would truly have made for some awesome parties - especially with the purpose-eroded croc-pit for gatecrashers!

The whole of Ha Long Bay was beautiful, probably further emphasised by the pleasant lack of scooter horns - their arduous chorus so persistant all over Vietnam! We headed past a number of floating fishing villages and then into a bay surrounded by islands for some swimming in the warm salt water. Being on the late side we jumped into the water only 30 minutes before it goes really dark (about 5.45pm). Others took kayaks and about 6pm in total darkness you could head the anxious cries of "come back now please" from the local tour guides worrying that they'd lost tourists, or worse-still their mate's kayaks!

We checked into the Sun and Sea Hotel in Cat Ba Town, Cat Ba Island where we watched a part of Batman and Robin until our substantial dinner of spring rolls, rice and some amazing tuna fillet dish...oh and a heap more tofu to top off the stack we'd had at lunch in place of any kind of meat!

We were very impressed with the amount of civilisation on such a small island - they'd even gone as far as providing coloured fountains on the waterfront, banana pancakes at knock-down prices and a great selection of Bia Hois! Being shattered we headed back for and early night, but found Moulin Rouge on TV. Following I indulged in some slightly dangerous Kung Fu practice on a 5th floor balcony. Fantastic for privacy and peacefulness but not so good when your hand slips on the tiling and you invisage your cartwheel rolling and bouncing happily to land a rather long way below! Adrenalin-rush over it was time for bed.