A day trip to Halom bay seemed like a good idea and bothe of us wanted to see this masterpiece of a landscape. We arranged a trip trough the hotel and we were up early as our pick up was at eight forty five. The bus arrived at eight fifty, we were the first on the bus  and we were invited to sit at the front.
We spent about half an our driving around various hotels picking up other travellers and then we were off. It was a four hour drive to Halom bay, made longer by a serious accident and so were half an hour late arriving.
We transferred from the bus to a cruiser and had lunch with an Australian couple, Rob and Catherine and an Austrian couple, Bernard and Kathryn. All very confusing, but they were good company. The lunch served on the boat was excellent and then it was time to go onto the upper deck and do some serious sight seeing. Huge karst filled the horizon, apparently there are over two thousand of them.
We motored to a small floating fishing village which  seemed to us to be more of a tourist trap, and we then transferred to a small bamboo boat, which took four passengers and was rowed around for about half an hour by a delightful woman, who insisted on taking our photographs and to being in a couple herself. Back to the cruiser and off we went to a cave on an island. A huge cave which was beautiful, after which it was back to the cruiser and then back to the harbour.
The drive home was another four hours and we didn't get in until nine pm. Our driver both there and back was interesting. He was obviously adept and passed vehicles both on the inside and outside. Double yellow lines meant nothing and at one point we formed a third lane on the other side of the road. All of us commented on it at lunch. When we questioned the legality of driving like this we were assured that it was all perfectly legal. I sat just behind the driver to his right, so I looked out straight through the windscreen, a bad move, I found myself holding my breath and muttering oaths on several occasions. Whilst the tour director was able to take a small nap I was transfixed by our driver's style.
We had dinner in our hotel and then after dinner walked around the night market that had filled the street outside of our hotel, before retiring to bed. The night market was full of young Hanoians buying trinkets, or phone covers or the like, but it had a very vibrant feel. Several stalls were very similar selling perfumes or belts or night lights, but there was a feeling that it maintained an old tradition and that the market would continue whatever!