Thursday November 2nd

Next morning the weather was clearer and Tracy got up for sunrise... unfortunately a big lump of limestone was in the way and she had to make do with some nicely lit photos. Once underway we cruised a different route in, stopping for a walk through an enormous cave with impressive stalagtites and stalagmites. This cave was used as a hospital in the war: at one time local fishermen would live in the caves as even a Typhoon would not cause much swell deep in the Bay. Now the caves are protected for the tourists (it is a world heritage site) and the fishermen make do with floating villages among the islands.

Sadly we only had 24 hours on the boat and were soon back aboard the bus, arriving with time in Hanoi to grab food and head to the station. Our cabin turned out to be better than anticipated... not so hard and with enough space to sleep comfortably enough. Exactly the same as the trains in Zimbabwe and South Africa for anyone who's been there. We were not booked together but soon swapped with a Dutch couple and the four of us shared with Hung, a local guy on his first train trip (he travels for business but usually by car) who spoke good English. After teaching him "Pass the Pigs" and seeing him win the first game we were joined by another local woman getting on at an intervening station and pretty much all hit the sack.