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We met early in the morning at the Love Planet cafe. More or less on time, someone called out "Halong Bay" and directed us to follow the trail of westerners heading for the main road. Here there was an air-conditioned coach waiting for us. There were five of us who had booked our tickets from Love Planet; the other 25 or so had booked with Queen's Cafe. The coach took us to Halong Bay where we stopped for a buffet lunch, before being driven to the ferry port.

Islands on the way to Catba

The Love Planet tickets had been a bit more expensive than the Queen's Cafe ones - we put this down to bad luck. But this wasn't the case. When we got to the ferry our guide told us that people with Love Planet already had the price of the ferry trip included in their ticket, but those from Queen's didn't. There was uproar. An American girl started haranguing the guide, and then her Dutch friend joined in. The American backed off - not in what she said or did, she just let the Dutch girl do all the talking. Somehow she shouted herself into phoning the cafe to complain. Off she went to the phone with the guide, and then came back doubly furious because the guide had refused to pay for the call (as this would almost certainly have come out of his own pocket I can't say I blame him). She made the call and was told that the brochure she had, which said everything was included was an old one, and anyway there was nothing they could do until she got back to Hanoi. So everyone, apart from the five of us, ended up buying tickets.

Islands on the way to Catba

The ferry trip included a stop at some caves - which was actually what the fee above was for. These looked man made, although we were assured they weren't.

Islands on the way to Catba

The rest of the five hour trip was very pretty, but otherwise unremarkable. We stopped at one point so anyone who wanted could have a swim. I think most of us would rather have got on with it - the journey didn't need to be that long.

Pirates?

Soon after we landed, a very battered bus appeared to take us to our hotels. Everyone clambered on board, bunching up and getting far closer than we'd normally like to. Everyone that is except a Japanese couple, who from their clothes (smart) and bags (suitcases not backpacks) were not used to roughing it. Japanese people are generally inscrutable, but the guy in particular could not hide how unhappy he was.

The two groups were staying in two hotels, so in out hotel there were just the five of us. Two women, Wendy and Claire, were traveling together, as were the other two blokes, John and Andrew from Tasmania. The three of us were put into a triple room, which, as we only used it for showering and sleeping, worked out just fine.

We had some great food in the hotel and then went to the only bar on the island - the Flightless bird, run by a Kiwi. He was friendly and the bar soon filled up with people from the boat and from other trips. Among the latter was Tracy who I'd roomed with on the Sapa trip. Neither of us knew that the other one would be there.

We had an early start, which didn't mix well with the amount of alcohol we'd consumed the day before. Wendy didn't bother getting up, but the rest of us were there, holding our heads. We'd all booked on the short trek, which would leave us the afternoon free to slob out on the beach.

But before we could begin this, there was an unadvertised, unpaid-for and optional trip to a hospital cave from the American war. I think everybody went on it anyway. By this time we'd met up with the Queen's Cafe group, and were following close on the heels of whatever group Tracy was with. The cave was interesting for what it had been, but wasn't much to look at. There was an army guy showing us around, who had been in charge during the war. He didn't speak English, so our guide translated for him. He described how they shot down the American bombers, and then proceeded to dance and sing, presumably a song about The Glorious Vietnamese Shooting Down the Cowardly American Bombers, while we clapped. Surreal.

We were then driven to the base of the trek. This turned out to be quite difficult and involved some elementary rock climbing in places. One girl was nearly in hysterics by the time she reached the top - she'd been expecting a hike and was scared stiff by this. The view from the top was nice, but not that nice. Waiting for us was a Vietnamese woman who was selling cold drinks, and had presumably carried up her cold box that morning, which puts in perspective how difficult it really was.

On the way down I made it more difficult than it needed to be, by taking a wrong turn and having to clamber over rocks and trees that I should have been able to avoid. In both directions our guide had lead the way, but at his pace, which meant that anyone who had problems couldn't get any help from him.

After lunch back in the hotel I headed to the beach, which had an entrance charge for foreigners - bugger all in real money, but it still rankled. A good proportion of people from the boat were there. The sea was very rough, which made it great for body surfing but no good for swimming.

That evening we went back to the Flightless bird and then staggered home, except for Claire and Wendy who staggered to a karaoke bar for a couple more hours.

Fortunately we could sleep on the boat - it was a very subdued trip, Mr Hangover was everywhere. In this direction it only took 3 hours. When we got to the port we found that there weren't enough seats on the bus. A few people had to stand on the way to lunch, but then it was the Love Planet group who got evicted and had to wait for a minibus to take us back.

John, Andrew, Claire and Wendy waiting for the ride back to Hanoi

In the meantime we were entertained by a shoe shine boy who spoke perfect English as long as it was on the subject of shoe shines: "Shoe shine, OK?", "No good, no money, OK?". As he always came back to this subject it wasn't a problem for him.

The minibus arrived eventually and off we went. The driver had on a Backstreet Boys tape, which wasn't great, but was tolerable. Or so we thought at first. When the first track finished, the second started, but was just a remix of the first. As were the other three tracks. Finally the tape finished. Hurrah! But it was one of those cassette singles where both sides have the same tracks on, so we were treated to a complete encore. There was some serious moaning in the back! But the journey was quick enough.

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Last modified on 22nd December 2007 3:31 PM EST

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