I wake up, not feeling fresh. 7am. I was actually tempted to turn the light on and make plenty of noise when packing my bag. I decide against it, because I am a nice person, not like them. So I get my stuff ready and head downstairs as my bus is between 7.30 - 8, of course being Vietnam nothing is on time. So I don't end up getting picked up until after 9. I am feeling pretty tired today, with my lack of sleep. When I get on the bus, there are little seats left and I end up having to sit in the seat behind the driver. There is no leg room, and I am squished up with my knees around my face. The bus driver is a crazy man, and he is starting, stopping and throwing the bus in to the corners. I am really struggling with the with the seating conditions, but at least the the AC is working in the bus otherwise I would be throwing up.
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With my tiredness I somehow end up falling asleep, with my head nicely nestled against the vibrating window. The guy beside me is the tallest man that I have ever seen. He has got his feet extended right in to the front where the driver is. He does not look like he is in a lot of comfort, I think that perhaps my situation is not that bad in comparison. After a little dozing the bus stops at a shop, of course. We have 20 mins and then back on the bus. At least there are toilets and the opportunity to buy some food and something to drink, so it is not too bad. The shop has some pretty nice stuff inside, but when you are travelling, tourist nik naks are not an option. After the 20mins it is back on the bus and to the harbour in Ha Long town. A 3 hour journey, and I was glad to get off the bus at the end. The tour guide gets us sorted with tickets for the boat and we get on. I appear to be with a pretty good group of people, and I see that there are some english speaking people, so I will be talking to them later. The boat comes and it is what I expected, 3 tier boat, with the top deck being an area that you can sit outside and get a good view. I get on and I leave my bag with everyone else at the back of the boat, and I take a seat beside the english speakers. There is Max, from England, Tom, Pete, Angie from Canada and Julianna from Brazil. I just bunch myself on to their table and start talking to them. Then our tour guide stands up and starts telling us about what is included in the tour, and what the itinerary is for the rest of the day. We have a stop at a cave, some kayaking and then a stop at Cat Ba island to drop off the people who are doing the longer tour.
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Lunch is served shortly after the boat sets sail, and I did not have high expectations, and it is a good job that I did not. There was plenty of rice, but everything else was not in plentiful supply. A whole fish was slapped on the table, and although it was quite nice, the effort required to remove the 1 million bones that are in this fish. At one point I take a bite of, what I thought was a deboned fish, but no, fish bone right in to my gum! Not cool. I ate up anyway, its free and I don't have any other option. After lunch we arrive at the cave, everyone off the boat, all bags left on board, I was not happy with this arrangement and so I take my bag with me. The cave was impressive, though not as good as the reed flute cave in Guilin. I think also that I am loosing interest in caves, the first one was definitely the best, and the ones after have not been as impressive. The tour guide tells us about how each of the rock formations looks like something, and how each one is relevant to some historical event. Apparently when the cave was first discovered there were monkeys living in it, but not any more. After the cave we pass through a variety of shops before there is the option to do a second cave. I decline and wait for the people in the group who decide to go. Then it is back down to the dock to wait for the boat.
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It was after this that the views really started to dazzle. As I sail through the bay each side is lined by the famous rock formations, the visibility today is much better than that I experienced on the Li river in China. Although I do not have any blue sky or sun. We sail for about half an hour and then we get to a floating village. People actually live here, on little villages, floating on the sea. Using boats everyday for every type of travel. Different world. It is here that we are going to kayak. Of course you have to pay an extra 50,000 Dong if you go into the grotto, which of course is one of the only places that you would want to go in the kayak. We get a boat over to the floating island and then we decide to pay. There is 5 of us and so I am in the boat on my own because Tom is feeling sick and did not come. This is no issue to me. We set off across the ocean, which is so calm. It is great to be out in the sea, and after a few minutes I am starting to get the hang of this kayaking business. There are a couple of grottos that we can go in to, with only one entrance, with a small cave, you then enter in to a large enclosed bay, with rocks that extend high in to the sky, fully surrounding the enclosed lagoon. There is complete silence in the lagoon, and it is eerie, just the sound of the paddles in the water. I let out a yell, and the echo carries around the lagoon, bouncing off the rocks and water for a good few seconds before fading away. Effective kayaking, in a two person kayak, with only one person in it, was a constant challenge. Though at least I was better than Julianna and Max, who were constantly last and spent most of the time going round in circles. Ha. We get a good hour of kayaking, which gave us a good chance to explore the surrounding area. It was nice to be doing an activity that didn't involve walking as I feel that is all I have been doing as of late.
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After the kayaking we then head towards Cat Ba island, I am hoping that although I can not see the sun at the minute, that there will be a dramatic sunset a little later. After we dock at Cat Ba island we have to wait for some people to disembark, then we pull away and drop anchor for the night. It is starting to get pretty dark, and there is no sign of a sunset. I am disappointed. There are a number of boats in the surrounding area that have all dropped anchor, I think this is the place to be. Some of the boats have got music pumping and have a much better atmosphere than our boat. I go ask the tour guide if she can get some tunes on the rip, which she does and so it is a much better improvement. Dinner is served and it is the same as lunch, fish, tofu, vegetables and a heap of rice. Before dinner a lot of the guys decide to have a swim in the sea, I am underprepared and have not brought my swimming shorts and so I decide not to join in. The fact that Max had told me that when he went to the toilet in the floating village, he just went in the sea, where a floorboard was missing, has further reinforced my decision not to jump in. Again I eat up a whole heap because this is all that there is on offer. The beer is vastly over priced compared with the rest of vietnam. The funny thing is that I am complaining over the fact that it is a £1 instead of 15p, but it is all relative.
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Karaoke later on, but it is only the crew singing, none of the people on the boat. The staff are not so friendly on the boat, but then I did get a cheap price and Pearl, in the hostel did tell me. It doesn't really matter, but it would have been nice if there had been a smile among the 5 of them. At least the tour guide is a smiler, that is good. Max and Pete had brought a litre bottle of vodka with them and so they periodically headed back to the room to fill up their beer cans with a vodka and coke. By the end of the night these pair were well on their way, and even I was finding it hard to understand Max with his drunken Bradford accent. He tried to go down and get some cigarettes from the bar man, but I think in his drunken state he might have said something that he shouldn't have and the guy would not sell them to him. So I had to go down and sort the situation out.
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It was getting near 12 and so I said my good night and went back to the room to get a shower before bed. It was nice and cold, and it wasn't long before Max was back in the room, stumbling around and knocking things over. When I got out of the shower he was straight out of his clothes and falling around the room naked, trying to make it to the bathroom. When he got in he waited for 5mins then he called me asking where the light was. I turned it on for him. Later I hear this crash coming from the bathroom and i'm thinking that he has killed himself, though he emerges shortly after. My alarm is set for 5.30, hopefully I will see a sunrise.