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Halong Bay is about 3 hours away from Hanoi via bus and after completing this journey we then boarded a small boat which took us to the 'Jolly Rodger'. This boat was going to take us out to Halong Bay and be our bed for the night.
As we made our way out into the bay we relaxed on the top deck, getting to know the others on the trip. Our tour guide, Matt, then went through a few ground rules for the next couple of days (these mainly involved various drinking rules) and then we headed down for lunch, where we were assigned cabins.
After leaving our bags in the cabin we again headed up to the top deck. Although the weather was not sun and blue skies, it was far from cold and more than anything it wasn't raining, which we had been forecast. As we chugged our way through the bay we had time to take in Halong Bay itself. Thousands of 'islands' (although they are more just massive pieces of limestone) scattered around, breaking up an other wise glassy, turquoise sea. We were both really looking forward to doing this trip and I think it's far to say the scenery didn't disapoint.
We anchored in one of many little coves and were told we could freely jump off the side of the boat. I happily accepted this offer and chucked myself in. The deck was actually higher than I first thought, probably the same as a double decker bus, but this made it even more fun. The sea itself was like jumping into extra strong brine and despite some advice from a girl (who had beat me to the jump) "just don't get it in your mouth" I managed to take a big old taste on impact.
When everyone had quenched their thirst for sea water and jumping we then headed for the second activity of the day, kayaking. We were in 2 person kayaks so naturally me and Belle donned a life jacket and hoped in. After a little practice, fair bit of zig zagging and low speed collisions (this was a reacuring theme for the day) we managed some kind of ryhthem and followed the guide to a cave. The kayak to the cave was about an hour or so and I think it is fair to say everyone (in the whole group, not just me and Belle) found it to be more of a workout than expected. However the location more than compensated for this and just gave us an extra excuse to take it all in when having a short rest.
The caves themselves were pretty cave like to be honest, don't get me wrong very impressive but pretty dark alot of the time, so if you didn't have a torch (which we didn't) you couldn't see that much.
On the return leg to the the 'Jolly Rodger' me and Belle were defiantly up for 'most improved award' as we powered back and were the first to arrive at the boat.
After a shower and dinner, a night of beer + drinking games + late night / early morning (depending which way you look at it) = fragile heads the following morning.
It was an early start the following morning as we had to leave the 'Jolly Rodger' and board another boat which took us to 'Cast Away Island'. A deserted island in a small cove surrounded by more of the limestone 'islands'. Our day there was our own and could choose from a number of things to do. Swimming, kayaking, volley ball, table tennis, chilling & wake-boarding. As Belle is not the biggest fan of water she sat this one out and I, along with 3 others from the trip tried our hand. First to go was Gustav who turned out to be a dab hand at it, managing to stand up at first attempt and continued to do so 5 out of 6 times. Inspired by this I opted to go next...turns out Gustav was a keen snowboarder which helped with his posture and balance - I did not know this prior to following his herorics. I think it is fair to say anyone pro or amateur, would struggle to call what I achieved wake-boarding! Bar one close attempt to standing up I was mainly dragged, face first, through the extra salty brine. The strange thing is I actually enjoyed the experience and would have liked longer out there to try and stand - the one near attempt gave me some kind of confidence I would eventually be able to do it. This could possibly take about 8 (straight) days though - time we didn't have. Whilst I was face-skimming, Belle was having a much more relaxing time sunbathing on the beach and was probably very glad not to have tried this experience.
A similar pattern to the previous night followed. Although it was a more chilled out affair, this didn't make for an early night.
Another early start was required, this time to take us back to the 'Jolly Rodger' for lunch and a calm journey back to the harbour. As our tired heads made it back to terrafirma we took one last look at Halong Bay and couldn't quite believe how quickly the 2 nights had gone. None the less a very fun trip which was rounded off by a three hour sleep (coach trip) back to the backpackers hostel. If anything we would have liked a couple more days in Halong Bay, but this true for almost everywhere we have visited so far.
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5 Pies My favourite quote: "The caves themselves were pretty cave like to be honest"
5 Pies My favourite quote: "The caves themselves were pretty cave like to be honest" .... Scrap that, we have a new winner: "Whilst I was face-skimming"