Ha Long Bay

It's been another nail biting journey, today, from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. For over four hours, we've dived in and out of heavy traffic, only being caught by a policeman once for inappropriate overtaking (he should have seen the rest of the trip if he thought that was bad!) Luckily, a backhander seemed to eventually sort that one out.  As we drove past, we wished the chap on his motorbike a safe journey as he wove through the endless traffic sitting on eight stacked, huge and pristine, circular saw blades.

On the way, we stopped at a large roadside cafe that had an embroidery factory set up in the entrance for disabled people. We sat for a while with a pregnant cat and a pickled cobra until the second part of the road trip commenced.  

Once we arrived at the port, things started to relax and we soon boarded. We have a lovely room with a bijou balcony which I'm now sitting on writing this with an outlook of incredible dolomitic rocks jutting out of the sea. 

Lunch was wonderful but I'm still restricting my intake to small amounts, carefully selected. Even so, the coconut juice soup was delicious. 

Ha Long Bay is breathtaking but I've been most in awe at Surprise Cave that we visited as part of the overnight cruise. This walk-in walk-out cave system of three chambers could swallow a small housing estate. 

I took my second antibiotic mid afternoon with some trepidation as I think they caused the stomach cramps yesterday. It says they kill everything from ecoli to chlamydia so I'm hoping it'll be onwards and upwards after tomorrow's final tablet.

It's now after dinner, the food was again wonderful, especially given I had an appetite and the cramps have been vague. Vietnamese food is my all time favourite. I wish I could eat more of it.

Rich is now squid fishing and I'm in bed with a book. Happy.