Day 99 – Arriving in Hue.

So the bus wasn't that bad! We arrived in Hue around half 9 and was dropped off at the bus stop. As we got off we were bombarded with people trying to get us to go to their hotels or get on their scooters but we managed to break free and get in our own taxi. Two girls from our Halong Bay trip were on the same bus and had a free pick up to their hostel, so we jumped in there taxi and then only needed to pay from there to our own. The guy tried to charge us double but we’re too clever for that and I gave him the right amount, got our bags and walked away. He can’t fool me!

We chilled out for a little bit in our room, sorted out what we needed washing and what our plan for the day was. There is currently a big festival on in Hue bringing a good buzz to the place. We walked to the bus shop to book our bus for tomorrow, then made our way over the river.

On the other side is the Purple Temple and many others. This place is currently full of flags, kites, stages, music, anything festival like you can imagine; this place is currently sporting it.

We seem to have arrived in Vietnam at a good time as there are a few festivals and things happening in the time we are here. For dinner we went to the DMZ bar, which is just around the corner and quite high on Trip Advisor (being using TA quite a bit recently!) and we got a 3 course meal and 2 cocktails for £8 each. I don’t know about you, but I think that is a right bargain! 1 cocktail alone in the UK would cost that!

Day 98 – Halong Bay to Hanoi, Overnight bus to Hue.

We got woken up on our desert island at 7am and needed to be off the island by 8 to head back to Hanoi. Today was going to be a very long day of travelling! 

Breakfast was freshly made fried eggs and bread with watermelon on the side. What I appreciated the most was the pot of tea! We got on the smaller boat which took us to the big boat where we swapped with the new team of castaways tour. The journey took around 4 hours and after another small boat we were back in Halong Bay. From here it was then another 4 and a bit hours back to Hanoi. Half way we stopped in the pottery place again for some snacks/toilet.

Eventually we made it back to Hanoi Backpackers 2 and were the first people to get our bags out so were ready quite quickly. We didn't need to be in the end as the minibus to pick us up to take us to our sleeper bus was very late. We were told 5.30pm pick up but it didn't come until 6.30pm. Tonight was the night of our first sleeper bus experience to our next destination Hue.  We've got a hop on hop off bus pass down the coast of Vietnam as it's one of the easiest ways to travel around. 

It's just a bunch of seated bunk beds in a bus. It's weird but overall the experience wasn't too bad. Hope the rest are alright!

Day 97 – Halong Bay to Castaway Island.

Sleeping on a boat is weird but I got a reasonable amount of sleep. We got woken up at 7am for breakfast and needed to be out of our rooms by 8. We then moved from our boat, to the smaller boat and then to another boat. Basically spent the morning moving boats before eventually arriving on the private island called Castaway around midday.

The company have a guy called Tom who lives on the island, well 5 days a week anyway! 

He told us we can go kayaking, rock climbing and High speed tubing if we want too. Obviously I had a go at all three. Yesterday was quite cloudy and a bit chilly during the day but today we had perfect beach weather, which was exactly what we wanted… seeing as we were at the beach and all. We ate lunch, and then tackled some rocks. I made it about two thirds of the way up and couldn’t get any higher. I could see a couple of places but was too small to get to them to push myself higher. Chrissy had a go too when I got down and got to a similar place as me.

  

I then went tubing and fell off three times.  It wasn’t really tubing, it was more a big cushion attached to a boat which you held onto, until they flung you off. It was good fun but gained a few bruises from it and drank a lot of seawater. 

Last but not least on the list of things to do was kayaking. I wasn’t that bothered after the disaster of yesterday but Chrissy was up for doing all the work again, so obviously I went along for the ride. It was pretty amazing as it was mostly just nature, the water and us. We went into this cove where our voices echoed and random birds and things surrounded us. We then went and had a quick look at this private beach before heading back to the island before it got dark.

Dinner was amazing like the rest of the food we’ve been given on this trip. The sea was full of glowing plankton that comes alive when you disturb the water, pretty cool!

Day 96 – Castaways Tour, Halong Bay.

We dropped our big bags off at the luggage room, made our way down stairs for the free breakfast and then jumped on the bus to Halong Bay just gone 8am. The trip to Halong Bay took just over 4 hours and was better than I expected. We stopped in a pottery place half way for a quick break as well.

We then got on a small boat to take us to the big boat. There were too many of us to stay on one boat, so we had two. We sailed for a bit, had some lunch and then docked up in a bay, which is the spot we went kayaking in.

I’ve only been kayaking once before and was terrible at it… I haven’t really got any better! It’s hard to sync two people together; we just ended up zigzagging along instead of going in a straight line. We eventually made it through a small cave and out the other side. On the way back to the boat Chrissy decided to take it upon her to do all the work, which I must say worked much better and we were mostly in a straight line. Maybe it’s just me? Hey, if she’s happy doing that then I’m happy too!

We got back to the boat, chilled out and were taken about an hour up the water to where we would be docking for the night. Slowly but surely the dark settled in, dinner was served and our night consisted of games and partying.

Day 95 – Hanoi.

We didn’t end up going to bed until about 4am, so there was no way I was getting up before 9am for breakfast. We went for a little walk and found ourselves at a massive indoor market, so we got lost in there for an hour or so before finding the exit and grabbing some lunch nearby. The food was amazing and cheap and exactly what we were looking for. We then went for a short walk by the lake and then made our way back to the hostel.

We needed to do a bit of organising, planning and packing for the next few days. Originally we were going with a different company but then changed and booked our Halong Bay 3 day, 2 night tour with the hostel instead. They also offer a hop on hop off bus tour from Hanoi the whole way to Ho Chi Minh City, so we booked all of that up too. Both things cost something stupid like 5 million dong but that’s actually only £140. I know I’ve taken control of the trip but I think Chrissy likes that, after all she has joint me on my trip.

We packed our small bags ready for the early start to Halong Bay and the grabbed something quick to share in the hostel. We spent our evening in a rooftop bar called the Summit Lounge at the Sofitel Hotel. I discovered in Singapore that it’s quite easy to go to a roof top bar and get an awesome view of the place you’re in, so I’ve decided I’m going to try and do more of this. The drinks were buy one get one half price so obviously we had two and were even given bar snacks! It looks expensive when you read it on a menu but the price of one cocktail was cheaper than the standard price at home, so we felt super swanky for half the price!