Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay was beautiful - huge rocks jutting out of the sea, good food, caves full of stalegtites, swimming in the bay...

But unfortunately it was all overshadowed by the theft of my camera, ipod, money, watch and earrings. Basically, our room on the boat didn't have a key, there was a blackout so i couldn't go back downstairs to get my things which I'd left in the room while I attempted kayaking (but couldn't go because the baot was too full of water), and during the blackout I'd scraped the motorbike burn on my leg (from the exhaust pipe), and so was in pain and needed medical attention.

The worst part of it all was the guide, a Mr Son, who basically didn't help, told the crew I'd left it in a cave, kept going back to bed when I was in tears and needing assistance, and then basically calling me a liar and saying he thought I'd made the whole thing up.

Thank God Tamara and the other girls were there, because without them it would have been absolutely awful, and I would have had no assistance whatsoever. Tamara was really fiesty, and later on back in Hanoi she went with me to the tour office and we took on the roles of good and bad cop (she did most of the western 'angry' and i was very Indonesian about the whole thing) and they gave us our money back!! Absolutely unheard of! Apparently the guide has also been fired.. It might have had something to do with Tamara mentioning she works for the BBC and Discovery, but you can't be sure...

The main problem is I still don't have my police report.. I think I'll need to call Michael, the hotel guy in Hanoi, and find out what is going on..