We arrived in Hanoi pretty early and shared a taxi from the airport with an Aussie guy we sat next to on the plane and a Canadian couple we had seen on and off through our Highlands trip. All of the guidebooks warn you about the various hotel and trip scams in Hanoi and of course our taxi tried to get us into his hotel as is usal in asia. Eventually we managed to get dropped off by the lake and after an hour and a half of lugging our bags about we found an ok hotel that didn't cost the earth! Our first day in Hanoi was spent wandering around the very quaint streets in the Old Quarter and eating some wicked food in a lovely french restaurant with a gorgeous bottle of vino, such a hard life. On day two we decided to start looking into Ha Long Bay trips; the receptionist at our hotel was very very pushy and tried her hardest to sell us a trip from the hotel but having read so many bad things we were determined we would not be ripped off and we would go on a lovely boat rather than a not so lovely boat! after a few hours of pounding the pavements we agreed on a three day two night stay on the IndoChina Sails Boat (Or so we thought!!) and prepared ourselves for a few days of luxury and pampering. When we booked the trip we decided to try the whole honeymoon thing in the vain and pathetic attempt to get upgraded to the suite on the boat, worth a try we figured! We were picked up from the hotel at 8 by our deluxe minibus (a converted ford transit) and took the three hour journey down to Ha Long (or bay of the descending dragon) with the obligitory stop off at a pottery factory en route (I think we are becoming a little too s/e asia cynical now!). On arriving at the Jetty we had a quick cold drink and then boarded the tender which took us to the Classic Sail Junk which we were to spend the next three days aboard. The junk was pretty cool but we realised soon enough that we were certainly not on the IndoChina Sails boat as we had been promised - hey ho!! Unfortunately the old honeymoon trick failed miserably and were dagenham dustbins as tel calls em! were assigned the cabin at the rear of the boat right next to the septic tanks and the engine room - Karma perhaps?? The 'scrumptious' seafood lunch served was mediocre in comparison to the vietnamese food we had eaten so far but during lunch we cruised through the bay, the weather was perfect and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, things weren't so bad after all! After lunch we moored in one of the bays and kayaked round the islands and through some limestone caves which was wicked fun. After this we were free to swim and sunbathe and so Tel set about doing somersaults and diving off the top deck with one of the lads on the boat (4 days later and his back is still sore!!??), i decided to sip my vodka and tonic from under the shade of the umbrella - heavenly! The junk set off again for another hours cruise to the sleeping area where we would spend the night. We had a lovely few hours on the top deck chatting with all the other passengers and taking in the surroundings, there was no sunset unfortunately but it was still awesome. Having spent too long talking and drinking we only had time for a quick shower and the it was time for another 'scrumptious' meal (I always worry when menu's use the word scrumptious, it never bodes well!)