Travel in march to Vietnam, 2nd March, Dragged myself out of bed, with Sarah's

help, and just made it to the Kangaroo Caf? for 8.30am

- I felt like I was dying. You name it, stomach ache,

headache, arse ache the works! Slept on the bus most

of the way to Ha Long bay, which Sarah was pleased about

as it meant I wasn't harping on about how crappy I

felt and she could read her book in peace! I managed

to force down some dinner en-route, which turned out

to be a big mistake - I won't go into detail. We set

sail on a boat out of Ha Long city bound for the bay,

the scenery here is just stunning. Legend has it a

Dragon made the 2000 or so Islands by whipping them

out of the sea bed with his tail ? if you believe that

you'll believe anything! We visited several caves cut

into the limestone by the sea and they really were

impressive, some even had resident colonies of bats

roosting in the roof. Again, these had been made by

Dragons ? however, they must have been out or

something when we got there because we didn't see any.

This was possibly a good thing as my ?trots? were so

bad by this time I doubt I'd have been able to run

away anyhow. We cruised the bay all afternoon, there

was a low lying mist which really set an atmosphere

about the place. By nightfall we'd reached a quiet

natural harbour in, we ate on aboard (not me

unfortunately ? I was downstairs ramming imodium down

my throat!) and then slept on the boat which was

really great.

Travel in march to Vietnam, We woke around 7.30 am

after a humid night on the boat. I have to admit that

we had no problems at all with our berth, but some of

the group had actually had rats running over their

legs and face during the night! Felt slightly better

but I was still having severe stomach pains and the

worst headaches I'd ever experienced, I guessed I may

be dehydrated so I started eating re-hydration salts

by the shovel full and drank everything I could get my

hands on. The bay looked great so early in the

morning, we had Sea Eagles snatching fish just feet

from the boat ? they were awesome to watch. We sailed

on to Cat Ba National Park, then onto Cat Dua

(Pineapple) Island, it was still quite misty but warm.

We rowed to the beach there and found a spot to chill

out. Within 10 minutes we were under siege by the

monkeys that live on the island. One tried to take a

chunk out of my arm but a right hook saw him off. One

lady in the group was not so lucky though, as she was

being relieved of her nice handbag by the monkeys she

resisted and got a nice bite out of her leg ? not

pretty. I have to say though, that despite being

little sods the monkeys were bloody funny to watch -

reminded us of Alfie one of our nephews a little bit!

Didn't eat all day today as felt that 24hrs starvation

may sort out my guts - fat chance, just made me feel

more tired than ever! Met a top guy called Carl from

Melbourne Australia. He's kindly invited us to stay

if we pass that way later in the year. Carl had

traveled just about everywhere years ago when was

travelling was hard going ? reminded us both of Uncle

Ron a bit. If you're read this Carl, thanks for the

offer and we look forward to seeing you later in the

year. We finished days sailing back at Cat Ba and

spent the night in a nice hotel on dry land. I had a

good shower and immediately felt a bit better.

Imodium doing great so far - just worried about the

Barnes Wallis effect!

4th March, Managed some

breakfast and boarded boat, Sarah managed to polish

off enough for four people as usual. The sun was

shining as we sailed back to Ha Long bay, what a

fantastic view. The rock formations are just

incredible. Jane, Anna and Jane kept us entertained

on the way back, three great ladies who'd done so much

travelling it was incredible, we could have listened

to them all day. Hello, if you read our journal! We

got back travel to Hanoi late, ate as I was feeling a touch

better, then headed over to the rail station to catch

the overnighter travel to Hue. We shared the cabin with two

Vietnamese, a girl and a guy named Binh - neither of

whom spoke English. Binh could see that I was

suffering and hopped off the train at one of the

stations and got me a bottle of water (yeah ? yeah, we

know they warn you not to accept gifts from strangers

? but it's OK we're grown ups we can look after

ourselves!) how kind is that. Second thoughts maybe

he was a bit worried about me leaving a ?Tramps

breakfast? on the cabin floor?! Still feel terrible,

but at least we're out of Hanoi which is a cool place

and en-route to Hue ? let's see what that brings!