Summer 2012 - 14th Stop: Yokohama & Fuji Go-ko

Next on the list, Yokohama & Fuji Five Lakes - two entirely different places, but seeing as we only spent a night in each, I'll just snuggle them up together for the purpose of this entry. It was tough leaving Tokyo behind, but these two didn't disappoint. They picked up the baton, carried the torch and kept the flag flying for Japan! (Sorry for the mixed metaphors, the Olympics were on at the time...).

First up was the very short trip down the road to Yokohama, so short in fact that it's hard to tell where Tokyo ends and Yokohama begins. Japan's first and second cities just seem to merge together like a big pair of urban Siamese twins. Tokyo may have had more glitz and glamour but Yokohama had its own charms too.

We left Tokyo early on the morning of July 31st. We really only had 24 hours here so we wanted to make the most of it time-wise. So, after dumping our stuff at the hostel, we headed out for the day, walking through Chinatown and along the docks of Yamashita Park. There also seemed to be some sort of Hawaiian holiday village, and now that I think of it, there were Hawaiian things all over Japan! Hawaiin music, Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian shrits - It's the most Hawaii-influenced place I've ever seen! (I've never been to actual Hawaii...).

We then went up to the modern Minato Mirai district, and even went back there again later on that evening to see the place at night.

We also treated ourselves to Subway for dinner, our first Japanese Subway experience, and quite different from what we're used to. I'd class us as Subway connoisseurs at this stage, seeing as we go there about twice a week in HK, so here's my analysis:

- Nice bread, very fresh and soft,

- Potato wedges with the meal deal instead of cookies or crisps - a bold move, but it works.

- A different selection of salads, but as long as there was lettuce and tomato, I didn't mind.

- Some downsides though, the price obviously, but that's just Japan.

- You have to pay extra for cheese too. What's that about?!

- Also, their subs of the day leave a lot to be desired, Potato & Cheese, Avocado & Veggie, are ya kidding me?!

But all things considered, a very respectable performance and just what we needed.

One other thing worth mentioning, about Japan in general - vending machines, they're everywhere! In buildings, in parks, on the side of the road, all over the place! They're really handy though, and we even saw some digital ones in Yokohama, very snazzy altogether!

The next morning, after breakfast in Yokohama, we got the train back to Shinjuku, and then on to Kawaguchi-ko for our second chance at Mt. Fuji. We arrived in style too, aboard our awesome Thomas the Tank Engine themed train!

We had about a day and a half here overall, and after the disappointment of Hakone, we were determined not to leave without getting a glimpse of Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, that was completely out of our hands and as we rolled into Kawaguchi-ko, we were greeted by nothing but clouds! Well, there wasn't much we could do to change the weather so we just had to make the most of our time here regardless.

As the name, Fuji Go-ko (or Fuji Five Lakes) suggests, there are five lakes here. Shocker, I know! They're much too big to see in a day, so we just went for a walk a quarter of the way around Lake Kawaguchi, before turning around again. We then strolled up to the nearby town of Fuji-Yoshida as the evening came to a close, to visit the Sengen Shrine, but we couldn't find it... But but but! As we wandered around aimlessly, something started to emerge from the clouds, and just in time too!

We finally got an exclusive peek at that elusive peak! As it was the middle of summer, it wasn't wearing its famous, snowy cap, but we didn't mind, we achieved our goal!

That evening we just retired to the hostel and watched some of the Olympics in the common room. They had a bunch of traditional Japanese clothes that you could try on, but we felt a bit self-conscious dressing up with people around. So, we waited for everyone to go to bed, rushed over, threw on a few kimonos and took some snaps!

We were on edge the whole time! Whenever we heard footsteps coming towards the room, we threw off our kimonos and tried to act all nonchalant. In the end, we managed to get a few pics off before anyone came in.

The next morning, we had a few more hours in town before we had to leave Mt. Fuji for good. It was a beautiful day, but again, Fuji was hiding behind the only cloud in the sky! It didn't matter though, we saw it once and that was enough for us! We took another walk around town and then got a cable car up to Mt. Kachi Kachi. There were some lovely views over Lake Kawaguchi and, the now obscured, Mt. Fuji. The walk back down wasn't too bad either. Summer may have meant that there were no snowy peaks to be seen, but it also meant the hydrangeas were in bloom.

We made a video diary up there too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj_FAnrfvqI

When we reached the bottom, we had given ourselves plenty of time to get back to the hostel and have something to eat before we had to catch our bus. But at that moment, the clouds began to clear once more and we just couldn't resist running back down to Lake Kawaguchi to get one last glimpse of Fuji. Totally worth it!

It did mean though that we had to hightail it back to the hostel, grab our bags, pick up something quick in 7-11 and jump on the bus before it left without us! Thus ending a thoroughly enjoyable time in Fuji Go-ko. The next few hours consisted of getting a bus to Gotemba, a train to Numazu, and then Mishima, before finally making the long haul cross-country to our next stop, Hiroshima!

Summer 2012 - 13th Stop: Tokyo

Ok, I know I said that capital cities aren't worth going to, and the real beauty of a country lies in the smaller towns, but I'll hold my hands up this time and make a huge exception for Tokyo. It's probably the best city in the world. Now I know that may just sound like hyperbole, as last time I described Manila as the worst city in the world, but both representations are true! We really went from the bottom to the top in the space of a day! Japan was just great all over though. Not only its modern, man-made beauty, but its natural and historical sights too. It had everything! And Tokyo was at the heart of it all. We loved our stay in Vietnam and Laos, but when we landed in Japan, it was a bit like stepping out of a time machine! No offence to those places, I know that sounded kinda harsh, but it was a refreshing change of scenery to be in arguably the most advanced country on the planet.

We arrived in Osaka on July 26th, two days later than we had planned, and as we were flying in late, we just spent the night there before getting the train to Tokyo the next morning. We had originally reserved a couple of spots in one of Japan's fascinating, little capsule hotels for that night, but because of our unplanned detour, we unfortunately had to cancel the booking. I was really looking forward to it too!

I know we should be blaming the typhoon for missing out on these two days in Japan, but it just feels natural to take it out on Manila! Damn you, Manila!!

When we landed in Osaka, we also activated our three-week Japan Rail Passes. Similar to European interrail passes, they allow you to travel on any train on the designated JR lines, mainly intercity trains but also a few different subway lines in some of the major cities. At a cost of 57,700 Yen (around €570), they may seem a bit pricey at first glance, but if we had just bought each train ticket individually, we would've easily spent two or three times that amount, so they're definitely worth the money. You can only get these passes outside of Japan though, so if you are planning a trip here, make sure to organise this a few weeks beforehand.

So, the next morning we hopped on a train to Tokyo to start our 4-day stint here. We were staying in a lovely part of the city called Nakano, although having said that, everywhere we went in the city was great! (Prepare yourselves, this blog entry is going to be full of love!) We never came across any dodgy areas or anywhere that we didn't feel completely at ease. I'm sure these places do exist, but we certainly didn't experience any. We actually found our way around Tokyo quite easily too, navigating the streets and subway lines pretty effortlessly, which is quite impressive considering, well, this:

On our first day in town, we walked around Ueno Park and the National Museum (not great), saw the bright lights of Akihabara's electronic district, and also went to Asakusa, to see Tokyo's oldest temple, Senso-ji, by day...

And by night!

Asakusa as a whole is a very nice district actually. There's a few other smaller temples and shrines nearby Senso-ji, as well as a beautiful riverside area containing the Tokyo Sky Tree, the Asahi brewery building (which looks like a giant beer), and a big statue of... something. Possibly a massive, golden turd...

The next morning, after breakfast in the 7-11 across the road (we really had to eat on a budget here. Japan is expensive out!), we went off on a day-trip to the historic town of Kamakura, less than an hour by train from Tokyo. It's quite a small place, considering it's a former Japanese capital, and we were able to see everything we wanted on foot.

It's a beautiful town and well worth spending a few hours, with an endless supply of ancient temples and shrines to keep you busy, as well as nice sea views and leafy, forest paths too. You'll never get to see everything here, but I think we covered the highlights, including Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, Kencho-ji, the Zeniarai-Benten Shrine, Hase-dera Temple, before hiking along the Daibutsu Trail and finishing off at the Great Buddha of Kotokuin.

It's not as big as Hong Kong's Tian Tan Buddha though... I'm just sayin'...

That evening we went back to Tokyo and visited Shinjuku, one of the busiest districts in town. It's probably the part of Tokyo most in keeping with the stereotypical view of the city - bright lights, fast paced, neon signs - a real attack on the senses. The kind of place where you'd have an epileptic fit just walking down the street. In a good way though!

The next day, we had a look at the more historic side of the city as we strolled around the Imperial Palace and surrounding gardens. It was quite nice but not a whole lot to see, being honest. Kamakura was a lot more impressive in this respect. We actually spent most of the day on foot, first checking out the famous Ginza street crossing and then heading over to Shinjuku again and the uber-trendy Harajuku.

One of the big things that struck us in Japan as a whole is how safe the country is, and not just that, but how trusting the locals are of this safe environment. For example, while we were in a small park near the Imperial Palace, we saw a man cycling along with his young daughter. They stopped and he left her alone while he went to park the bike. Now, he was probably only gone for a minute or two, but in any other country that's a long time to leave a small child out of sight. And even when he returned, they left their bags by a tree and went for a walk around, not a care in the world. Amazing.

I was obviously too busy taking pictures at the time. If I was paying more attention, I could have picked up a new bag AND a new daughter for myself!

We went on another day-trip the following morning, this time to Hakone, a small lakeside town in the shadows of Mount Fuji, again, a little over an hour from Tokyo. We had a lovely day out here, as we carted ourselves around by train, bus, boat, cable-car and funicular, all in the space of a few hours. Our first stop along the way was Owakudani, a volcanic area where you can try the local delicacy of black eggs, which are just like regular eggs, but cooked in bubbling sulphur pits on the side of the mountain. Mmmm...

We were apprehensive enough about trying sushi, never mind sulphuric eggs! Needless to say, we moved swiftly along.

Next, we got a boat across Lake Ashi, which was quite spectacular in itself, but could've been a lot more so if it wasn't for a stubborn, misplaced cloud that sat snugly on top of Mt. Fuji for the afternoon. We waited and waited, camera at the ready, but alas, not a Fuji (or even a Fugee) in sight.

Disappointing of course, but all hope was not lost, we would get a second bite of the cherry two days later when we travelled to Fuji Go-ko, hopefully this time it would be ready to come out to play. We still had a great time in Hakone though, a really beautiful town. And the thing is, the weather was actually lovely while we there - blue skies overhead all day.

That one little cloud just ruined things for everyone!

We came back to Tokyo that evening for, sadly, our last night in town, returning to the world famous Ginza Crossing to get one last slice of Tokyo city life, before we continued on with our Japanese journey the next morning.

We made a video diary there too! Even if you don't want to hear us waffle on, it's worth it just to have a look around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOph2w00Rs&feature=youtu.be

And there goes Tokyo! I know we've said it before about various cities we've visited in the past, but we'll definitely be back here again, without a doubt. It's just a wonderful city and in the four days we've spent here, I'm sure we've barely even scratched the surface. On the plus side, we still had another two and a half weeks left to go in Japan, so plenty more fun times to be had!

Summer 2012 - 12th Stop: Manila

"What's that?!" I hear you cry, "Weren't you flying to Japan next?". Yes, indeed. In a break from our scheduled holidaying, we're bringing you a special edition of the blog, live from the worst place in the world - Manila! Thanks to a little pinch of bad luck and a major dollop of typhoon, we had to take a small detour from our intended route, but we'll come to that in a moment...

When we last left you, we had just arrived in Hong Kong and it was good to be back, if even for a day, as we had people to see, things to do, stuff to pack and unpack too. (I didn't mean for that to rhyme, but I'm definitely leaving it in!) We didn't come back to HK mid-holiday for just these reasons of course, it also had the cheapest flights in the south of China, and so we were flying from here to Osaka (via Manila) the following morning.

While we were in Vietnam and Laos, it was meant to be their rainy season, but we luckily seemed to dodge pretty much all of it. I guess Mother Nature was just storing it all up to unleash upon us in one go, as that night, Hong Kong had it's worst storm in 13 years!

And the next morning wasn't much better, though thankfully the trains were still running so we were at least able to make it to the airport. And there was more good news as we arrived, in amongst the cancellations and major delays, our flight to Manila was still going strong, albeit with a minor 50 minute set back. This was fine though as we had 3 hours after we arrived in Manila to make our connecting flight.

Unfortunately, as we made our way through the various stages of the airport, those 50 minutes turned into 3 and a half hours, so by the time we arrived in Manila, we couldn't even make a dramatic, last-ditch run to our gate, the flight was already gone...

We headed straight to the Cebu Pacific desk as they were handling both our flight in from HK, and out to Osaka. And in fairness to them, they couldn't have done more for us.

- "Excuse me, our flight from Hong Kong was delayed and we just missed our connecting flight to Osaka"
- "Don't worry, we'll take full responsibility and will book you on the next flight to Osaka free of charge"
- "Oh great, that's very good of you! What time is the next flight?"
- "Emm... Thursday"

And as my brain was in holiday mode, all I could think was 'Oh God, what day is it today?!'. It turns out it was Tuesday, which meant we had two days to kill in Manila. Funnily enough, we would've been better off if our flight from HK had been cancelled completely, instead of being delayed. At least then we could've spent those two days in comfortable surroundings. In fact, we would've also been better off if the typhoon had slammed our plane into the ground, and spent the two days among the wreckage, rather than spending it in Manila. It would've at least been safer and less chaotic! Seriously though, Manila is an absolute shithole.

And the thing is, despite being stranded here, we were both very positive about things and really embraced the situation, and in a strange way, were kinda looking forward to two days in a surprise location! We just wish now that it had been somewhere else, anywhere else. I always try to put as many pictures as I can into each blog entry, but I'll be making an exception this time around. The place had absolutely nothing to offer. In fact, I'm not even going to recount what we did in our time here, it was just an atrocious place. What did I tell ya about capital cities...

The most exciting thing we did was go to the cinema to see The Dark Knight Rises, and even that wasn't very good!

We just couldn't get out of this town quick enough! On the plus side, these two days made it all the sweeter when we eventually did land in Japan. In fact, things got better as soon we stepped on the plane! Cebu Pacific always have a little competition on board where they call out an object and the first person to hold it up wins a prize, and as we had flown with them a few times before, we were ready for their games, nobody else stood a chance! And that just adds to our experience of Manila - as soon as we leave, we get a bag full of cakes! I'm sure there's a message in there somewhere...

Here's a video diary of our time in there, now let's never speak of this place again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RThNCz5zMhE&feature=youtu.be

Anyway, onwards and upwards! We may have been two days late, but we still had three weeks of Japan ahead of us, and a nice sunset to welcome us in.

Land of the rising sun, me balls!

Summer 2012 - 11th Stop: Guilin & Yangshuo

And so into China! Not a new country for us of course, but still, two new pins to stick in the map – Guilin and Yangshuo. They were the only two stops we made in the south of China, and were conveniently less than an hour apart, which is ridiculously close by Chinese standards, it’s a pretty big country! I’ll group them both together in this entry as we only spent a few days in the area, and they’re both quite similar in terms of scenery, just like a couple of Halong Bays, without the water.

Well, with less water...

As I mentioned last time around, we got a night train from Hanoi straight through to Nanning, a fairly pleasant journey all things considered. The only minor inconvenience was waking up at 3am to go through immigration at the Chinese border. But as Vietnamese trains go, it wasn’t too shabby at all, especially considering our previous outings (Vinh to Hanoi – eight hours of hard seats, and HCMC to Hoi An – sharing our bunks with a family of six!). So imagine our delight when we walked into our sleeper cabin this time, to be greeted by, not only a pair of fellow whities but, a lovely pair of Scots – Katie and Andrew. And as it turned out, we both had similar plans and similar accommodation in Guilin, so we paired up with them for the next few days.

When we pulled into Nanning, we sorted tickets for the next leg of our travels (despite a severe lack of English anywhere), grabbed some mediocre food and hopped on a train to Guilin, arriving at our accommodation almost a full 24 hours after we left Hanoi.

We had only planned to spend a day in Guilin, so to maximise our time here, we arranged a driver through the hostel to chauffeur us around town, taking us to the Reed Flute Cave, Solitary Beauty Peak and then to Banyan Lake where we went on a boat tour of the city. We had read in a brochure that you should be looking to pay around 50 quid for this which, between the four of us, wouldn’t have been too bad, but at the hostel they said it would only be 20 RMB, around €2... We thought there must’ve been some misunderstanding, but we went with it, perfectly willing to pay more if asked for it. But no, that was it! Two Euro for our own driver. And that’s €2 total, not each! I usually feel great about getting a bargain, but this was so cheap that I almost felt bad about it... almost.

First off for us was the Reed Flute Cave, which was quite good, just a regular cave really with nice illumination here and there.

The definite highlight for us though was their, shall we say, ambitious attempts at labeling the different rock formations. You get this quite a lot at places like this; the rocks aren't interesting enough by themselves so the organisers try to convince you that they look like different things, usually just simple, ambiguous objects like candles or vegetables, but they really took things to a new level here. I don't know where they got their ideas from, but we couldn't make out any of them!

Yup, that's "a centipede frightened by a magic mirror"...! It really made our experience a lot more interesting though, trying to find the most outrageous name possible! 

Next up was Solitary Beauty Peak, another nice place with a short but steep climb up to the peak itself. But again, the best thing about the park was the signs, and one in particular with their rules and regulations, the so-called "Chinese Citizen Domestic Travel Civilized Behavior Convention".

Some of the highlights being:

- "No pandemonium"

- "Don't chase, hit and feed the animal at random"

- "Don't gain petty advantages"

- "Don't talk billingsgate"

- "Resist superstition. Refuse pornography"

We were thankfully able to control ourselves, while in the park at least...

Later that afternoon, we went on a nice little boat ride around the lakes and rivers of Guilin, a pleasant trip, but more interestingly, there was a fancy boat-elevator thing on the edge of the lake. So basically, you drive up to this contraption which closes off a little area of water around the boat. You're then lowered, water and all, down about 20m to the river below, and off you go!

Well, I thought it was interesting anyway.

After the boat trip, we had a nice walk along the river and then on to our last stop of the day, Brocade Hill. It seemed to be a pretty happening place too with lots of activities and attractions on the way up, like caves, shrines, a 5D cinema (???), but at that stage it was around half 5 and we were eager to make it up to the top for sunset.

The sun didn't actually end up setting for another hour and a half...

We did have plenty to keep us occupied though while we waited for the sun to go down, with streams of locals coming up wanting to take pictures with us! This has happened to us a couple of times on our travels, the odd person now and again, but here they were practically queuing up for us! We were only delighted though, a nice ego boost, even if they only wanted us for the colour of our skin (and the shape of our eyes!).

A boy even fainted up there. It was more than likely from the heat, but we like to think he was a little star-struck…

The sun finally set after 7pm, but it was definitely worth waiting for. We may have only had one day in Guilin but we certainly made the most of it.

That evening we all had a nice dinner in a local place along the main street. Like many of the local restaurants in town, they had big basins and cages outside filled with super fresh (i.e. living) ingredients - from fish and crabs, to chickens and ducks, and even a couple of… well, I have no idea!

Some sort of rodents, maybe…? Hedgehogs? Any guesses? Needless to say, we stayed well clear of anything that looked remotely suspicious.

After dinner, we walked along by Banyan Lake, where we had earlier started our river cruise. It was much more impressive at night though, especially with the Sun and Moon Pagodas all lit up.

And that was Guilin! The next morning we got a bus down the road to the smaller, quieter and more beautiful Yangshuo. As we were staying in different accommodation to the two Scots, we split up, checked in, got bikes and met up with them again a while later for a day of cycling.

We were planning on cycling to the Dragon Bridge that afternoon but after our two attempts to find it were halted by roadworks, we had to go somewhere else. That other place was the Butterfly Spring, which we just happened across. It was quite similar to what we had already seen in Guilin - scenic views, nicely lit caves - although, unfortunately it was severely lacking in the funny sign department.

Afterwards, we cycled back to the town, parked our bikes and took a stroll through the open-air markets, which sold your usual scarves, jewellery, paintings and all of that sort of thing. But there was a very nice ambiance around the place, much different to the big city feel of Guilin. For the remainder of the evening, we just got some food and chilled out in a couple of rooftop bars. And although that only marked the end of our first day in Yangshuo, it was the first and last day for our Scottish comrades, so we had to bid them farewell before cycling back to our accommodation in the dark.

The next morning, we got up, grabbed some brekkie and then tackled the Dragon Bridge once more! This time we took the much less scenic, but much less confusing main road for most of the journey, before veering off into the countryside and finally reaching our target at the third attempt.

And we're glad we gave it another shot, as the surrounding scenery was some of the best we had seen. As I mentioned before, on the surface it was quite similar to Guilin in terms of the vast, undulating limestone peaks, but Yangshuo definitely won hands down for its natural and untainted beauty. This area in particular along the riverside was especially beautiful. Rivers always make things look better anyway, but the quiet trail of bamboo rafts floating downstream certainly added an extra level of tranquility to the scene.

On the way back, we decided to try the scenic route again, with the logic that it should be a lot easier to go to Yangshuo than from it. It was basically just a case of following the river all the way, and the plan was going pretty well, leading us through some tiny villages and beautiful countryside, that is until I got a flat tyre... Being in the middle of nowhere is great when you're free and easy, not so much when you need help.

It was also the second time in a week that I got a flat tire, after the same thing happened to me in Halong Bay!

At that stage, we were probably about 9km from Yangshuo and not entirely sure that we were going in the right direction, so Aisling cycled on ahead in search of help while I just wheeled along slowly behind her. Eventually she came across a local man, and although he had no English, he did have a bamboo raft. He also seemed to understand our problem, so we followed him through the fields, down to the river and climbed aboard. Next stop, Yangshuo!

Well, not quite. He actually just brought us across the river to a little place called Yima Village. We were, I guess, one step closer to home but still had a looong way to go, and my bike was still out of action. On the plus side, we were in a village now, instead of just wandering the countryside, so had a better chance of actually finding some help. And after enquiring at a guesthouse and an English school to no avail, we finally stumbled across a bike repair man in a little stall at the side of the road who promptly (and cheaply) patched me up, and pointed us in the right direction. Phew! We were back on track! We came across the roadworks too that had halted our progress the day before, and spotted a little path that looped around them. It turns out we could have gone through the day before and never knew it!

Oh! I nearly died as well! For realz! As we were coming along the main road back into Yangshuo, I was cycling alongside a trailer full of rubbish. The driver obviously mustn't have seen me as she veered out to the left, knocking me off balance. I instinctively put my foot down and just about managed to keep myself upright. It was a good thing too as, if I had fallen, that was me gone for good under the oncoming traffic. Someone was definitely out to get me that afternoon.

The following day, and our last in Yangshuo, was just as enjoyable although thankfully less threatening. We grabbed some bikes again (different ones this time) and headed off to Moon Hill, which was just the same as all the other peaks around, except for the big circular hole in the middle.

It was a long way up to the top, especially under the hot sun, but again worth it for the views below and to see the Moon Hill itself up close. We even met some people rock climbing at the top, inside the circular cut-out. As tourist attractions in China go though, it was very quiet, so we decided to find a secluded spot and make another video diary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSEwIkSc1nk&feature=youtu.be

Well, what we thought was a secluded spot. This is actually one of our favourite ever video diaries, just because of our unexpected guest. She was a hoot! And we actually did buy some postcards from her afterwards!

Serious respect to her too. She must have to walk up and down that hill several times a day while we struggled to do it once! Ah well, there go our dreams of selling postcards on Moon Hill!

And that was the end of our time in Yangshuo! That night we got a sleeper bus to Shenzhen, and when we landed the next morning, we hopped across the border back into Hong Kong. Home sweet home, for just a day, with a flight to Osaka the next morning. Part 1 of our summer holidays done, plenty more to come! 

Summer 2012 - 10th Stop: Halong Bay

Just a quick blog update this time around for our final stop in Vietnam - 3 days and 2 nights cruising on one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature - Halong Bay. (Well, technically we spent the first day on Bai Tu Long Bay, but that's not really as catchy or prestigious). It was another stress-free little break, following on from Sapa, and a nice way to round off our time in the country.

We booked our tour, once again, through our hotel in Hanoi with a company called Ethnic Travel. There were a lot of cheaper options available, and walking down the streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter you'll see agents with a variety of low-cost packages. But, as with anything, you get what you pay for and it's definitely worth splashing out a small bit to get, not only a nicer boat but, a tour that takes you away from the main route and the swarms of other day-trippers.

We left Hanoi on the morning of July 15th, and after a four and a half hour minibus journey, we arrived in Bai Tu Long Bay, Halong Bay's less famous but equally as beautiful neighbour. As soon as we landed at the dock, we set sail, enjoying a tasty lunch while we took in the panoramic views of the endless sea of karst peaks.

The scenery was certainly stunning, although very similar to Palawan in The Philippines, where we spent last Christmas. For this reason, we weren't as wowed by it all as we maybe should have been, but we could still definitely appreciate the beauty of the place.

After lunch, we just relaxed on deck, lounged around in the sun, caught up with our reading, and after a spot of kayaking, headed to Quan Lan Island, our home for the night.

This was all part of the tour, spending the first night in the family home of Mr. Sau, a retired local fisherman. And that was fine with us, we were expecting a real traditional island experience - staying in a wooden hut, sleeping on a straw bed, eating food straight from the fire etc. But when we got there, it was just like a mini-guesthouse, a great big building with marble floors and a flat screen TV! He must have caught some amount of fish in his career if this is his family home!

We didn't mind though, and we did at least have a lovely traditional dinner with everyone from the boat before bed.

The next morning, we were up early and, despite being promised breakfast at the house, we were greeted with a 10km cycle back to the boat for breakfast instead! It was a lovely cycle around the island, one we really enjoyed, although we would have preferred not to tackle it on an empty stomach first thing in the morning... That's one minor fault I'd have with the company, they did seem a small bit disorganised at times, but it wasn't the end of the world.

We finally got breakfast on board as we headed towards Halong Bay, and that rounded off the first half of our trip. As we arrived at the dock, we upgraded to a bigger boat with our very own private cabin, our new home for the next leg of the tour. It had a nice sundeck up top as well, so we spent most of the afternoon there, working on our tans.

I'm sorry for the lack of excitement in this blog entry, but we really did very little besides balming out in the sun - great to do, not so great to write about...

We did go swimming too later in the evening to cool off, although saying that, I've never swam in such warm water before, it was, well not roasting, but definitely lukewarm!

And look, I'm jumping in, wooooo! (that really was as exciting as it got...)

In fact, I'm just gonna fast forward the next 12 hours as it's just one big montage of eating, sleeping and sun bathing. Accept this video diary instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_srj1yOJag

Aaaaaand, that's the end of Halong Bay! The next day we got a minibus back to Hanoi (to Tu Linh Palace of course), where we greeted at the doors with a big "Welcome home!". It really was like home for us though as we were given more free drinks and another room to hang out in until our train that evening. (And remember, at this stage it had been a week since we last spent the night there!)

But sadly, that was the end of our time in Tu Linh Palace, and Vietnam as a whole, as we jumped on a night train up north to China. It was sad to be leaving Vietnam, as we greatly enjoyed our time here. Some places more than others of course, but definitely a country worth visiting and perhaps worth returning to some day.

For now it was on to China, so I guess that's where I'll pick things up next time!