Halong Bay 2-6Jan 2016

We left Hanoi on 2nd Jan. The city was still recovering from its New Year's Eve party. Purely put on for the tourists and the expats as Vietnam celebrates New Year on the Chinese calendar, the city still went all out for it with stages and huge sound systems all around the lake and the big parks. Jess and Otto lasted till about 10:30 thanks to ice-cream bribes from the lovely Kim from our hotel. We watched the rest of the celebrations from our balcony.

We splashed out (again) on a cruise round Halong Bay. Our first ever cruise and it was pretty good - apart from the regimental timing for everything. Basically we were last to everything. Last to dinner and breakfast. Last to the boat for the cave tour. Last back on the boat after meandering through the cave. Last on the boat to the swimming beach and last back (we were the only ones brave enough to swim though....brrrrr!). safe. to the Kayaking. So last to get in the Kayaks they ran out of paddles for me and Jessy.

However, despite our appalling time keeping we enjoyed the cruise and we're now ensconced on Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay for a couple of nights before returning to Hanoi and the hustle and bustle again.
The weather has got better, warm enough for swimming and we've braved the mopeds again. There's not much traffic here so it feels pretty safe.
​