We are millionares!!!! YAH!!! Oh wait....that is $100! haaha
Wake up Vietnam!!! Well I just wanted to write that, awesome! (Editorial note from Burr: yes, you are correct, it is meant to be “Good morning, Vietnam”) (Anne to Burr - oh I messed it up, let me change it! Burr - NO WAY you wrote it! )
After a three-hour delay in Laos, we arrived in Hanoi and we were picked up by our hotel. Got in a very nice SUV and were driven back to the hotel. The trip was about 1 hour and was an amusement park ride, with the terrifying bits too!! As we drove our driver really seemed to like to straddle the middle dotted lane in the 2 lane rode, lovely. Then there are motorcycles and mopeds EVERYWHERE and people ride these things like crazy. The put babies in them without helmets or seats, they have 3 people on 1, they talk on the phone, they text, its unreal. Then they just honk all the time….like crazy…the hotel we are staying at has an extra double door to the patio to block out the honking cars at night…wowzzerrrsss.
The first night here we had to find a Halong Bay tour leaving the next day, which was a bit stressful since all the places were closing as we got to our hotel. We ended up going through Oriental Sails. We got dressed up and went to a place called Green Mango for dinner. It was nice! It was the best glass of wine I’ve had since we left South Africa so it was so lovely. We came back and booked a trip to Halong Bay for 3 days and 2 nights and off we went at 8am the next morning.
It is a four hour bus ride to Halong City, where we transferred to our ship, the Oriental Sails. The bus ride was at least air conditioned and it was a mini-bus so it wasn’t too terrible. Plus…many travels uses buses as there way of transport around Southeast Asia – meaning they take overnight buses to their next destination so seeing this is our longest ride we were fine. So - We promise, the views of the bay (a solid A) are nicer than the boat (a solid C-) or the food (a shaky F, highlighted by the staple Anne found in her cabbage on the final night). We hiked through limestone caves, kayaked around and occasionally into the more than 2000 islands and hidden lagoons (note – a double kayak is always a little difficult for accountants and Burr and I had to count if we wanted to go anywhere quickly to stay on track….haha!) , met interesting couples from India, Germany, Canada, Antarctica and other points around the globe.
We made the pilgrimage back to Hanoi in the back of a bus that was a roller coaster (on the plus side, it was only a 3 hour trip home).
Tomorrow we will try to visit the Hanoi Hilton and Ho Chi Minh tomb before we fly to Hoi An. We’ll see how it goes.
Final verdict ---- we would recommend Halong Bay, just not Oriental Sails.
So we arrived in Halong Bay! This is the view from the top of our boat. 
Burr on top deck of boat
Floating 7-11s are everywhere! These ladies have it all, they come up to the side of your boat. Unforunatly you are not allowed to bring any food or drinks on board, because they want you to buy theirs, of course. 
Our boat. 
Us in the HUGE cave! 
On the top of the boat....wagh I'm still so pale. 
Floating fishmerman villages. 
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