I woke up at 6 and was up and soon out of the door which wasn't locked for a change from Hanoi. I had a feeling the cannon fort office would be shut so I could go and see the early morning view so I walked up and nobody was around. I got to the top and went to my favourite viewpoint and got a few photos. My HP bag strap broke so I just had one strap and I went back down and went past the ticket office at 6.40 and someone was there now but didn't bother me . I got a banh my nearby and then went back to the hostel to shower and get all my things together for the day including my old Karrimor bag as there wasn't time to repair the HP one. I tried not to make too much noise but the bed was creaky and my suitcase is big, so I woke 1 of the 3 Spanish girls. I was ready before 8am which was when the bus came and off I went with a full bag of things. We picked up 1 more person to gave a full bus and went to the harbour and got on a boat. There were about 14 of us in total including me and we had a guide called Cay which means spicy in Vietnamese. The boat left harbour and we mostly went upstairs for the view but there was not much talking among people and mostly they stuck in their pairs. The scenery was nice, lots of karsts and a pillar but I don't think the pictures do it justice, it also wasn't raining which made a nice change. Around 9.30 we stopped and all got into 2 person kayaks so I was at the front with a Chinese Panamanian behind. We chatted a bit as we paddled along and went through a cave to get to a protected bay area. Then we went back and went through another cave to a dirtier bay and finally we went out to the more open sea for a while before getting back a little before the 11am deadline. There were a few fish being farmed or kept on the floating place but after a bit we were ushered onto the boat for an early lunch at 11.30. They brought out quite a few plates and my table got to eating while another table were talking a lot more with the Americans and one Canadian doing most of it as the Danish were pretty young and maybe a bit shy. The guy from Panama did tell us how he had been shot and one by one the people round my table all stopped eating and I carried on and then had some of the food from the other table and yet I still wasn't full up. The boat moved off and we went to another spot. My action cam had no battery power so my ideas of a time lapse as we moved disappeared. We stopped for snorkling with 2 beaches nearby and a few of us jumped in but the water was pretty cold. There were other boats also parked up and we all swam around. I had to get out and try to warm up after a bit while others stayed out a bit. The Americans both chatted to me and they had been travelling for a similar time as me. The next stop was monkey island which I believe is not cursed. There was a rocky hill to climb and we got up the top for some good views before lots of other people on the other tours climbed up. It meant going down was slow as there were too many people. There were sone monkeys there no surprise but they were imported macaques and they were mostly around the restaurant. We headed back afterwards with more views and a floating village and got back around 4.30 and they took us back to the hostel where 2 Canadians on the trip were also staying. I tried to be productive and repaired my bag at least, but I was a bit tired so I rested for a bit. The girl on reception came in close to 6 as she and her boyfriend also working there were in my room and I got up. I booked a bus, boat, bus back to Hanoi and paid 20k more for the one that goes to my hotel so my suitcase would thank me. I was still hungry so I went out and tried a steamed bun for 10k which was ok. I couldn't find a bike rental place and I wanted to get my blog updated before going to an internet place so I wandered more and I got a bunch of bananas for 25k and then later on some cakes. I updated my blog at the hostel and went back out to an internet place that said it was 10k an hour but charged me 3k for 30 minutes. I read some back at the hostel and the guys in my room where watching movies in bed but then they did want to sleep soon after 11 so I did as well.
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