Halong Bay and last day in Hanoi

On the morning of the 26th, we patiently waited for our transfer to our boat 4 hours away on which we were to cruise spectacular Halong Bay. We waited and waited and after 2.25 hours our van arrived at the hotel. This delay meant the boat left without us and we had to cover the first couple of hours of serene cruising through magical islands of rock on a speedboat instead, hurtling at top speed to catch up with the boat.


When we caught up they were waiting for us with hot facecloths and hot tea with honey. We checked out the beautiful cabins then had lunch by ourselves in the elegant dining room because everybody else had already finished. After lunch we went to explore a massive limestone cave.





High up the rock face we could see an opening to the cave. They warned us we'd be walking up 100 steps and down 200.


We stopped and posed for pics at the lookout we'd spotted from the boat.





The view out was beautiful.



Then down we went into the vast cave itself. It took a good half hour to get through it, it was so colossal.









Peter opted to enjoy some relaxation in our cabin






while the rest of us took another little excursion to an island where they've created a little sandy beach. The young and fit walked to the top and back while Rosie and I enjoyed the beach. She swam and Jessye joined her later.


We got back to the boat at sunset and the islands were particularly beautiful in this light.


Drinks and an elegant dinner ensued.






After playing cards and enjoying the surrounds we slept well in the comfy beds.

In the morning, Rosie and I braved the chill at 6:30am for Tai Chi on the top deck. Only two other hardy souls were game. After pastries at 7 we all took a trip through a tunnel in the massive rock on little bamboo boats rowed by a lone standing tiny Vietnamese person hauling about 10 people per boat.






The lagoon on the other side was gorgeous and the highlight was seeing a group of golden monkeys way up on the sheer rock face scampering up, down and across like Spiderman, jumping onto sparse trees as though they were on the ground.



Then it was back through the tunnel to a hearty breakfast on board while we cruised back to the mainland.















For Peter's last night in Hanoi we were given the penthouse suite with its own rooftop deck and views over the city. We stayed in and got room service. Rosie had a sore tummy so slept it off in a separate room.


The next morning we had breakfast together then saw Peter off at 9am in his taxi to the airport. The rest of us relaxed and shopped. The one downer on the trip was that Rosie had her brand new iphone5S, with lots of personal diary notes and holiday commentary transferred to it from trips dating back several years, stolen out of her backpack on her back a couple of minutes before we got back to our hotel. Jessye, Max and I had planned to visit the fine arts museum mid-afternoon but after Rosie's upset, we wanted to hang out together so headed off to a very nice cafe/restaurant called Koto where we could relax on soft sofa-type long seats around low tables.


The food was great and we stayed for ages eating, drinking, playing cards and getting silly.


Finally, we came back to the hotel for a quiet night of packing and TV for Rosie, Sophie and me, leaving Jessye and Max to explore the nightlife. We'll have breakfast together this morning then we three will get a flight to Melbourne via Ho Chi Minh City while Jessye and Max have one more day in Hanoi before catching an overnight train to Hoi An. They will spend another week backpacking here before leaving on Jan 6.