We left our hotel early yesterday morning bound for Ha Long Bay. We didn’t realise at the time that it would take 4 hours to travel by shuttle to get there.

On the way we stopped at a large tourist place where they had all kinds of artisan products. They employ local disabled people to do some of the work, here are the embroiderers stitching away they make small to large silk paintings with amazingly neat stitches, you can see some of their work hanging on the wall in the background and in the foreground, all hand embroidered with silk.

Of course, I had to buy a piece, and of course I really liked the black and white pieces -there weren’t many of them, but the shading detail in them was exquisite, there are only two of the embroiderers that can stitch the black and white as they are single strand paintings and some can take two-three months to do. Here I am with my piece and the stitcher, she was mute, but very beautiful and was a joy to see her work.

I have never bought a ‘nude’ before and now we have purchased two in two days eekkk!

The weather in Ha Long Bay was no cooler, despite being beside the sea. Seriously 47!!!

We boarded our boat and were assigned this lovely cabin with ensuite and balcony.

We were then served a 5 course lunch!

While we were eating lunch we were cruising along. We then visited a dry, limestone cave, one of many in the area, but some are not accessible, either because they are protected or you have to scuba dive to get there, or they are under water at high tide. We then pulled into a bay and swam and kayaked they water was very warm, we were probably in the water for over an hour, for those of you that know me well, know that that is extremely rare lol. Then a sumptuous buffet was provided for dinner.

This morning we awoke to a beautiful calm, hot day. We were taken to a nearby floating fishing village, it was sooooo hot but very enjoyable.

We also had cooking demonstrations, tea ceremony, the staff were so lovely, the Vietnamese people are so friendly and helpful, you never see them flustered or grumpy.

We got back to our hotel in Hanoi and went for a wander around before a lovely dinner.

Cafe, Vietnam style

Pop up restaurant!