29th June 2008

• Early rise, swim, brekkie, lost kite wood.
• Got on boat to Cat Bah island. Looked bad.
• Very busy and touristic.
• Took bus to a hospital (old) built into a huge cavern.
• Very cool, guy sung a random Ho Chi Minh song.
• Waited for bus and got on our cool mountain bikes.
• Very hot. Great scenery.
• Huge hill. Made it to top without stopping.
• Pee in bus. Look up. HUGE spider
• Break. Drink 27 gallons of water.
• Steph and 1 or 2 others got on bus. Rest of us battled on.
• Awesome down hill section to big flat plain
• Stop for wikked lunch, loads of food. Ate half the world.
• Bus to port.
• Comfy speed boat.
• Long 3 hour bus ride back
• Debs + Zen + Brand New!
• Train not booked.
• Steph lost her card in a cash machine
• Vegas Travel, $26. Overnight train to Sapa.
• Tricked into Vege Handspan restaurant.
• Wolfed down sarnies
• Late, Taxi, Train
• 4 bed soft sleeper to ourselves. Nice.
  

28th June 2008

• Early up, swim
• Others late, eventually got on boat. Just us 3 and Brent and Wendy
• Apparently, Flip Flops are okay for hiking. Tired and sleepy.
• Captain made beds for us 3 inside. Slept.
• On mainland. Walk 6km or so through very nice mountainous surroundings.
• National Park.
• Village. Dogs and Ducks and very loud Karaoke?!
• Lunch. Lyches and ants dumped on table
• Can't be bothered to hike and wet and only have flip flops
• Man of family invites us in for drinks.
• Muh, Ho, Baht, Jew. or 1, 2, 3, Drink
• Crazy strong rice wine made from suspicious things from the forest.
• Guy obsessed with drinking
• Brent bought some
• Hire motorbike and drive to go back
• Steph fell off while stationary!
• Tunnel flooded, took boat back with beer. Apparently m voice is nice and calming?!
• Debs drove boat, as did drunk Brent
• Shattered. Dinner on outcast table
• Doze on loungers. Sleep death.
  

27th June 2008

After finding the wrong Ocean Tours office, the lovely lady came and got our wandering souls and gave us a yummy cup of tea. Seems very professional, we were given free tea, shown an alternative more active tour we could do (which turned out to be cheaper due to a promo) and Debs and I got some bread from the bakery. All crammed a bit tightly into a mini van, everyone else a bit older than us but they seemed alright. Waited at the port for a bit, tried to see if the old gang were here, but no luck, so we all got aboard our junk, a triple decker wooden boat where some people were going to stay on for the night. Sat with a dutch and german for lunch, though we bumped around the harbour for ages, and another junk ploughed into us with a crunch but no one seemed too concerned. Lunch was a seafood concoction, without much allowance for vegetarians but was yummy. The german (Thomas) and I ate most of the food really. After some chatting, the boat departed towards the bay and island, we finished the bottle of cheap Vietnamese wine we got (Dalat) and sun bathed for a short while on top as we were shattered as normal.

Junk was amazingly quiet and we drifted slowly past looming rocky green islands and amongst other junks onwards. We pulled up amongst some island to do some sea kayaking, everyone had tandem kayaks except me who was solo. We went through limestone caves and tunnels to tranquil sea lagoons, surround on both sides by island hills and watched some colourful and quite large jellyfish scuttle past. Needles to say, Debs and Steph crashed their kayak on a number of occasions, including into the limestone tunnel! After successfully climbing back aboard the junk, only slightly breaking it and spoiling Debs' “You've Bee Framed” photo opportunity, we headed to our resort, which turned out to be on our very own island with only a few bungalows on!

• Free Tea
• Nice bungalow, single bed
• Swim
• Met with others for dinner
• Yummy. Yorkshire couple, Brent and Wendy
• Happy hour, drink wine, vodbull
• Karoke
• Manhood and T. T-Hood. 3am.