I’ve been slacking, so first here is my delayed bit about Halong Bay:

It’s AMAZING.

That sums it up, but a few more details are needed to make it a bit more authentic. Our guide for the trip was called Tony Tinh (we all thought it was Tony Ting therefore he was automatically a legend for having such a name.) There were 16 of us, a really good group of people, all staying on the boat that night after our day of fun and apparent drinking games later on in the evening….said Mr. Ting.

Halong Bay is impressive as soon as you set off, and I can’t remember how big it is exactly apart from HUGE. We stopped at a big cave and had a walk around, then sailed a bit before stopping at the floating village (you know the bit at the end of the Top Gear special. Sadly no Jezza shrine in sight.) Here we got in 2-person kayaks and after an impromptu lesson from Rose, we/mainly not me paddled around some islands and into a few caves. It was so beautiful, no one else around and your voice echoes because it’s so quiet. I don’t mean to sound like a tree hugger, but it was incredible. And then a massive jelly fish came along to ruin the moment.

We anchored for the night (I just have NO idea if this is the right boating terminology..) and just before sunset we jumped off the top of the boat into the jelly fish infested waters…sort of infested. Bikini top immediately round my neck and a fair few shots of salt water up the nose into my brain, job done.

That evening we all played Ring of Fire, and after sorting out the Canadian/French/English/Swedish variations of the game, it was still a universal rule across all cultures to gang up on Jade. “Person most likely to ‘end up with’ a Vietnamese person that night?” – “Jade!” SORRY, WHAT?! “Person most likely to finish the drink in the middle?” – “Jade!” OK this was fair enough, it was only beer so I took it as a free drink. Although I would like to point out there was an IRISH guy there too. Still, i’m not sure what vibes I was giving off, but thanks everyone, much appreciated. Of course the night ended with the two English guys, Rob and Jake, getting the most drunk and doing back flips off the boat with every intention of taking a life raft over to one of the near by boats. Classic.

The next day went like this: woke up too early, had breakfast, sailed, rolled some spring rolls, ate said spring rolls, got back to land. Halong Bay was amazing and probably my favourite place we’ve been to so far!

After Halong Bay and Hanoi we went to Hue, which Rose has written a post about already. After a traumatic bus journey from Hue during which the air con broke and we were driving in a pure sweat box, we ended up in Hoi An…

The place with all the tailors! I feel like we spent a large proportion of our time in the tailors/walking to and from the tailors/getting our clothes adjusted at the tailors. We both had slightly OTT dresses made (someone needs to provide a decent occasion for us to wear these to please), but it was fun looking at all the pretty fabrics and traipsing the internet to see which designs we wanted to, errr, copy. We also hired bikes for a few hours and cycled to the beach to top up the fading tans. As soon as you get comfy on the beach everyone comes over to try and sell you their various touristy tacky items. One woman put in so much effort that Rose caved and bought a fan – highlight of both of their days no doubt. And Nick promised to pay one of the woman later because he didn’t have enough cash on him…so they organised a time for her to come to the hotel that evening. Super shifty…

For a few of our evenings in Hoi An we went to Why Not Bar – all you can drink of their paint stripper home brewed spirits for 100,000 dong (about 3 quid). As soon as i sipped some of the ‘vodka’ my stomach was not in agreement. Nothing like a gentle reminder that you had food poisoning the day before. Another time we went there we were told to all leave the bar at 1am and follow the staff for some free booze, and even more free booze was promised when we came back from this adventure…all because the police were arriving at the bar and OF COURSE ‘no one was drinking alcohol’. So the party continued on a bridge for a while, it was weird, and we walked back to the hotel. That happened…right?

We did a really good cooking class one morning, with a visit to the market with our local guide Phap (lol). The food market had an awesome atmosphere and was run by woman, because we are the best duh. Phap later told me that people at the market were telling him they thought i was beautiful….WHAT CAN I SAY. Maybe it’s the shortness, i’m familiar to them. Or as Rose puts it, he was just another one of my Vietnamese boyfriends…

Kidddddding.

Jade x