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So it's my birthday in Vietnam and it will be something a bit different not having any family or friends from home around and also no cards to open or presents to unwrap but being in Vietnam is a decent enough consolation!
Booked up a 2 day trip to Halong Bay not too far away from Hanoi so the start of my birthday was spent on a bus ride sat next to a fat French man! Boarded our junk and I did a quick summary of who I would be spending the next 2 days with and things could have been so much worse so I was fairly satisfied. They served up a nice lunch and then we set off out into the bay. The weather was slightly less cold than it had been and the fact that I had 4 layers on meant I could stay up on the top deck and admire the views. The skies were grey but visibility was fine and a little bit of fog actually adds to the feeling that the place has. It feels strangely mysterious as the junk (the boat) sails between all these huge rock formations jutting out of the water and the further you go the more incredible the 360degree view around you gets. It is most definitely a place that photos could never really do justice to.
We stopped off on one of the bigger islands and followed a big crowd of tourists up some steps so see a cave which I wasn't really expecting much of but when I went through the entrance I was properly in awe. It was like something you would expect to see in a movie or just see on Planet Earth. They had dotted a couple of coloured lights about to illuminate the cave but it was an awesome sight and the stalagmites and stalactites were massive. Not even the hundreds of people in the cave could take away the magic. Went exploring a second one that had fewer people and that was pretty impressive as well.
After that it was back on the boat and after some more sailing we dropped off some of the boat that would be staying on the biggest island in a hotel. The hardcore stayed on for the night and after some kayaking as it got dark which was brilliant we started to see why our trip was the standard class. Every other junk it seemed had lights on but we had to wait and wire up to another for our electricity! My cabin door was broken so I had to climb through the window to get in and to describe our dinner as small might just be the biggest underestimate ever made! It wasn't all bad and those minor things couldn't spoil a great day and we passed the evening with some card games and drinking.
The next morning we picked up a load of the people that had stayed on the island and headed back to the port area. One of the ones onboard was Carl, a guy we had met back in Vang Vieng on a night out and ended up going out for a dinner and food that night in Hanoi with him and the friends he had made on the trip. Had a really good laugh and beer, cocktails, jenga, pool and table football against the locals make for a good night even if we did get hammered at table football. We scored first and had them worried I reckon ... for all of about 5 seconds before they started scoring with ease!
So the 2 day Halong Bay was a great experience and it is no surprise it is up there contesting to get in to the 7 natural wonders of the world. It was also a very good birthday and totally different from any that I have had before.
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