And we are off again!

Jim’s cell phone rang at 3:30 this morning- and thus we started our day.

An early morning walk through Hanoi before we are picked up for our 2 hour drive to Long Ha Bay.

By now it is 6:30 in the morning and the park is alive with Tai Chi and dancing.

But then on to breakfast, re-packing and loading up.

Our initial choice of an overnight cruise on Halong Bay didn’t work, so we were booked on a new boat on Long Ha Bay. Our initial disappointment, turned our misfortune into great fortune! This is amazing. The boat is 6 months old, and we each have one of the 2 suites on the boat. Longha Bay is actually a part of Halong Bay, but much more peaceful. Longha Bay has 300 boats that do overnight cruises and 200 day cruisers. Our Bay has a total of 30 boats. So an absolutely gorgeous boat and an area to ourselves.

Our suite!

But clearly our room was meant for Ian. We got the peacock!

A quick bite to eat – although it was 4 courses – and we are off to ride bikes around Cat Ba Island.

We ride to a village to learn about the island and the special tea and rice wine that they make. But before we get that far, Jim parks his bike and starts a domino chain.

Now for some rice wine. There is hibiscus, rice wine, honey and then snake wine. If you guess Ian had snake wine you would be right.

Well he is still alive, but now we get to ride our bikes back to the dock.

And then I come across this!

Fake news! But Yvonne says he will probably have shorts filled with sand fleas! No sympathy from us.

Now a couple of massage appointments (included) – then dinner.

A long day – but not as crazy. Tomorrow we kayak in the morning – then head back to port, where we will be picked up and driven to the Hanoi airport for a flight topn Ho Chi Min City – although everyone here refers to it as Saigon.