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We had both looked forward to our boat trip through Halong Bay and today did not disappoint! After an early bus from Hanoi, we boarded a huge 'Junk' boat around lunchtime, which our small group had all to ourselves, and immediately set up camp in the deckchairs on the top deck to enjoy the views. Although there were many other boats taking the trip through the bay, we took a different route and hardly saw another boat as we sailed past dozens of stunning limestone islands rising dramatically out of the water as far as we could see (there are around 2000 in total)! We moored at one large island to walk through an absolutely enormous natural cave which runs through the centre of the island. It was really surreal be surrounded by crazy rock formations and an almost lunar landscape, only to emerge at the other end and look out onto the blue ocean! We were served a terrific lunch including loads of fresh seafood and continued our journey through the incredible scenery, also passing a couple of floating fishing villages. After finding a suitably quiet spot, the boat stopped and we were able to dive into the water for a quick swim, before the police speedboat arrived to put a stop to it (apparently you are not allowed to swim in Halong Bay)! At the end of our cruise we arrived on Cat Ba island, the only inhabited island in the bay, where we would spend the night in sleepy, spookily deserted Cat Ba Town. We hope our photos do the day justice!
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