In the afternoon of the first morning we took our first small boat to an inlet within Ha Long Bay and taken up close and personal with the limestone formations, but also up and inside the amazing cave formations discovered in the early 90’s which were absolutely incredible!

In just 3 weeks with these girls they’ve grown to be like two sisters to me. Even with 5 years in age difference, there is definitely no telling. When you travel, the friendships you make are like on fast forward, and particularly in a country like Asia. There are no boundaries and there are situations and obstacles that you all have to help each other through. These girls have helped me through the worst of my homesickness, sickness and bad luck but also just been the absolute best company. We’ve just spilt for 3 days and I miss them already, but we’re soon to be reunited on another two occasions (with gifts of vegemite and tim tams on their way) and I hope again in the near future.

This was our glorious roof top lounging area of our boat in which we got to sun bake and cruise with the best views surrounding.

After a 26 hour travel day we arrived some more rested than other, but this was without a doubt the worst night bus trip I’ve ever experienced as there seemed to be pot holes every 5 meters along the way. For those lucky enough to be dosed up on Valium it didn’t matter so much. The weather predictions weren’t working in our favour until a couple of days so we had to change our plans around slightly (for some this meant skipping Sapa, and for me it meant very quick changes and lots of travelling). And I’m so thankful now that we spent 2 days watching movies, wandering the city and getting cheap and much needed massages, because when we boarded the boat with not a drop of rain close by and the days to come, all of the rushing is now worth it. Half our group (well almost all the guys) opted to do the infamous and legendary “Castaway Tour”…think 3 day crazy booze, overpriced booze cruise. The rest of us, and poor Dan who was on antibiotics for a terrible ear infections boarded a more civilised, relaxed and much cheaper boat but by no means were me missing out on this natural wonder of the world by any means (in fact, we lucked out exceptionally well for how much we paid!)

The sections destroyed in the war VS.

The currently refurbished buildings within the city.

A scale model of the city, which remind me of Versailles, though less extravagant, but because of its sheer size and unnecessarily over the top planning of entire houses/ sections for the emperors women, etc.

The emperors throne room, immaculately covered in gold.

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Entrance gate to the Emperors cit