sunbathing anyone?

Another Introduction from Ianto
In this post Ashley finally addresses the topic of her hat, proving that 'people power' can still produce a reaction. Otherwise the below post is predominantly occupied with talk of boating and the weather. If you enjoy these topics, I predict you will enjoy the post.
yours,
Ianto Ware

***

So we have returned from halong bay, and moved hotels to be with the cycling crew. new hotel has only one computer, so i've found myself an "internet cafe" from which to do internet things. Its actually a travel agent, and when i walked in i checked the price, being aware of the potential for rip offs if this recaution isnt taken. however, i think she said $10 an hour, and yet i sat down anyway.... hmmm... oh well whatever. to its credit its the nicest, fastest computer i've used in weeks, and i actually get on to the blog! hoorah! no more intros from ianto... even if they probably are more entertaining than my actual posts.

before we begin we need to get into this hat issue. firstly, i still love my hat. to me its just an amusing green cap with a smaller brim than normal, so i have no issues about wearing procycling gear. its not like its made of lycra. secondly, in cambodia it was largely too hot for such a small brimmed hat and i got myself a wide brimmed hat that i wore more than the promised cap. hanoi has been cold and therefore hatless. HOWEVER, tomorrow the cycling begins, and the hat with come to the fore. i do have some pictures with the hat, although not as many as i would like. and in case you havent all realised this yet, there's clearly not going to be any pictures posted til we get home.

so, to halong bay. ridiculously early morning, forced to leave the bulk of our luggage tucked behind some stairs in a hotel we've never stayed at... which has all worked out ok.

minivan carried us out on the 3 hour trip to halong city, with some commentary from a pleasant guide, stopping half way at what i will simply call a tourist barn. a place set up particularly to capture the tourists half way between hanoi and halong.

arrived in halong, and had the interesting task of clambering over another boat to get to ours - all survived without mishap. our group of 12 sat down on our boat to await lunch, with plenty of picture taking of the 100 odd chinese junk tourist boats all jostling to get in and out of the quay thing... eventually we departed, halong bay is pretty amazing - if you dont know what it looks like, google it - but there are 2000 of these small islands in a 100km area, so its one of those things where it just keeps going forever... very scenic and quite cold. stopped at an island thingy that contained a massive, extremely *cavernous* cave, with lots of strategic lightly, and assurances that its the most beautiful cave in halong. it was very nice.

somewhere in there we had a pleasant lunch on the boat too, and met a lovely english couple who we chatted to throughout, although we were nearly overcome by jealously of their 3 month travel adventure...

we travelled on to a beach, where another boat was anchored, with a large group playing a game of soccer, laura and i were just commenting that one of the soccer players must be called ashley, when we realised it was actually one of our cycle crew calling to me from the beach - and so we spent a pleasant hour catching my with several of the group, and enjoying watching a highly competitive game of strictly boys only soccer...
back to our boats, for more crusing around, a pleasant dinner watching the lights of the other boats anchored in the harbour twinkle in the distanct, before laura and i continued tradition and i went to bed while laura stayed up to befriend the rest of the boat.

now, all of this was very nice. Except it was FREEZING. the cold was fine during the day, we rugged up and sat on the roof to see the views, but upon going to bed and discovering we each had one thin blanket, things became a bit pained. i slept in my pyjamas, with my clothes over the top and my towel thrown on top of my quilt and still froze all night. pity really, cause everything else was lovely. and to think we'd envisiaged swimming and sunbathing. oh well.

anyway, more cold cruising and eating this morning, lunch in a hotel back at halong bay, and the bus ride home. all reasonably uneventful really. tonight, we have dinner with the cycle crew, and tomorrow we're supposed to be cycling the city. which is probably good, because the fear of the traffic is drowning out my fear of the physical pain of riding.

probably should stop before i spend all my money on the internet...