Goodbye paradise

Today our short but amazing trip to Halong Bay and Cat Ba unfortunately came to an end. After breakfast at the hotel we headed back around the island to board the boat to take us back to the mainland. This meant another beautiful ride through another part of Halong Bay and it certainly did not disappoint. We sat on the back of the boat again on the way and just enjoyed soaking it all in one last time. During the ride we had a demonstration of how to make a Vietnamese spring roll with rice paper and traditional ingredients. I did give it a go although it wasn't the best thing I've eaten and it was hard to construct with the wind blowing on deck. We had an early lunch on the boat which was a little frustrating as we then had at least a 40 minute wait afterwards while the boat refuelled before we docked. I feel lunch could of been a little later but it was still amazing. Today we had home made Vietnamese version of fish and chips with other plates such as rice, a chicken veg mix and even lightly sugared peanuts. The food on the trip has all been outstanding and we've tried some great dishes, although not quite brave enough for oysters! The refuelling was also entertaining and scary to watch as they used a normal fuel pump nozzle and put it in an opened up water drinking tank bottle which was on a stool and the had a long tube that went down to the boat. It was disheartening when they had finished to see them just pull up the pipe and get petrol everywhere in the water and the shore lining steps. When we finally were able to get off the boat we had to board a smaller vessel to take us to shore. We all spent longer putting on the life jackets than the ride actually was! After another wait we got on the bus and began our 4 hour ride back. This evening we spent our time finding Nick some new walking sandals as the metal connection on his had rusted and snapped off and we also were hunting for a mosquito net. For some reason they love me, not Nick, not anyone else on the trip, just me! 10 bites I got last night! Luckily we found one but trying to hang it in each place will be entertaining. After some great Vietnamese food we rounded off the night with a walk back to the hotel along the lakeside and treated ourselves to an ice cold bottle of water! We know how to live!Read more