Next stop - the beach!

We had a choice on waking from our night on the junk in Halong Bay.  We could either go on a trip at 7.30am to the Bat Cave, which apparently would mean climbing over 600 steps.  The problem was, there was only one way in and one way out.  Therefore, once you had started, you couldn't turn back, you had to go the full distance.  After us girls hadn't done the full climb the day before, we decided to give it a miss and have a leisurely start to the day instead.  We left the curtains of our panoramic windows in the cabin open all night so that we could watch the sun rise from our bed.  What an amazing sight to wake up to.  The only problem was that by the time we wanted to get up, there were other junks and tender boats passing our window, so it was a case of jump out quick and make it to the bathroom before the next boat passed by!

We had coffee and croissants on the top deck whilst waiting for those who had done the trip to return, then we were served with a delicious full breakfast in the dining room.
The Captain sailed at a very leisurely pace back into Halong Bay harbour and by 11.15am, we were back on our coach having to endure the four hour transfer back to Hanoi airport ready for our flight down to Danang at 7pm.
The highlight of the trip back up north was seeing one of our facilities!  

We were at the airport by 3pm and the thought of hanging around for four hours was too much to bear!  We managed to alter our reservations for the earlier flight and were in the air by 4pm!  Louise managed to twist her knee somehow whilst moving seats and by the time we reached Danang, her knee had swollen considerably!  We may have to take it easy for a couple of days until the pain and swelling subside a bit.  The flight was a little over an hour and after waiting for about 30 minutes, our transfer taxi arrived to take us to our next stop.

The Sandy Beach Resort gave a pretty good first impression!  We were greeted in reception by girls with cool towels for us to freshen up with and a drink of fruit juice.  We've got beach bungalows overlooking the beach and they are pretty fabulous!  We will certainly be quite content here for the week.  Our bungalow is only about 50 yards away from one of the swimming pools, which also overlooks the ocean.  It was dark when we arrived, but pretty impressive all the same!

After a quick freshen up, we wandered over to the main complex for an evening meal.  The menu looks great and we will look forward to working our way through it over the next few nights!