From Hue I got the night train to Hanoi, I shared a cabin with a nice group of Spanish people. I would have used it as an opportunity to practise my Spanish but I slept instead. 14 hours later and I had arrived! I had also met a guy called Ben on the platform and we went together to the hostel.

In the evening I found Ben with a guy he met in his room called Fabio (an Italian born in England) we played pool together and some how when it was my turn against Ben, I didn’t completely suck! In fact at one point I had out potted him by some way. Fabio said my pool skills were and I quote, “sensational!” He’s a charmer.

We hung out for the rest of the evening getting some food and drinks and having a little dance in one of the clubs. Before long I had to get to bed to get up for the Halong bay tour castaway in the morning.

We all woke up zombified at 6am and headed down for breakfast, I felt rough as toast and struggled to shovel down my fruit and yoghurt. I met a Scottish girl called Lisa the night before and then together we met two Irish girls Ruth and Jen (they would become my favourites!) once we set off it became clear quickly who the loud ones were going to be and for once, I didn’t make the cut! These people are next level loud. Russ and Max were the DJ’s for the day while Lisa was just the loud crazy drunken Scot! But she was fun...for the most part!

The journey was long and dull but once we made it there it was clear that it was all worth it. The private island was buried in the cliffs of the trees, the huts were woven with a thatched roof sitting on a bed of soft white sand while the blue of the ocean brought it all together to form a paradise island.

Our first activity was tubing. We popped life jackets on and hopped on the tube. I was with three big Scottish boys so I hoped they would be heavy enough to pin me down. They weren’t! The first corner we flew over flung us wildly from the tube. I was drowning! Water filled by nose and mouth and I could feel that my stomach was bruised. We carried on. This time I was in the best place, two more sharp turns and two of the boys flung off leaving just me and one other left on.

We finished the day in the bar. I was so tired by night time I was desperate to get to sleep. Not possible on Castaway Island. Music, laughing, shouting, drunken screaming, torch lights and then finally, someone sat on my head.
“Ahh! What the?”
“Oh sorry! Sorry!” He apologised.
Eventually, and I mean eventually I was able to drift off.