Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Half an hour after we were meant to be picked up, myself and Franks sat nervously anticipating the worst in the hotel lobby. Stella, our Vietnamese travel agent, wasn't the most reliable and we had managed to blag everything she had booked so far. So at 8:40 when a "party cruise" bus rocked up outside our hotel I couldn't tell you what I was feeling at that point. After we had picked everyone up, fifteen of us, we started the two hour drive to the coast. As everyone chatted away and got to know each other me and Hawkins, at our most sociable, had a nap on the back row.
We stopped half way for food and a toilet break at which point we decided to meet everyone. Turns out we'd been spending the next few days with Becky and Paul, the couple weirdly from Horndean! Albert from Amsterdam and Gus from Ohio who had met eachother in China last year and always kept in touch. Lucy the English school teacher who got fed up of teaching seventeen year olds who had failed their GCSE's so last week quit her job and was now travelling the world. Rachel the Aussie and her English friend Shona who had just finished her two year working visa in Oz. Merissa from America and five alcoholic Irish guys who couldn't fit their stereotype anymore!
Once we had boarded the boat we all sat down round a large table as we begin sailing through one of the worlds natural made wonders. We had our own private cabin which was cute with an ensuite and the rest of the boat included a bar, dining area and sun deck.
After an hour we had arrived at our first destination which was a massive cave inside a rock island that fishermen had rediscovered only twenty years ago. We got to walk around and take photos and it was incredible and a lot more impressive than the perfume pagoda was! After visiting the cave we hopped back onto the boat and all sat on the sun deck drinking beers whilst sailing through the surreal setting. The sun was out in full force by this point which meant perfect timing for a kayak! We kayaked through the still and clear water through caves and into private lagoons. I won't say much more as it was genuinely un describable and we felt more than blessed being able to experience this. After an hour of tranquility and bliss floating through the lagoons, we boarded the boat once more.
A few more beers and the Dutch courage meant that everyone was up for jumping off of the second floor of the boat. It was quite tall and slightly nerve racking. Obviously didn't show this! But it was amazing, jumping off with everyone, swimming through Halong bay and drinking rice wine all as the sun was setting. This was no ordinary sunset either. The sun turned the whole sky an incredible shade of pink.
After the most delicious dinner and a pretty good bottle of wine, all fifteen of us sat around playing drinking games and getting to know each other. It is safe to say the rest of the night was a massive blur and due to my ability not to suffer to bad from hangovers (I tend to just stay intoxicated till the next evening) it was very funny seeing everyone struggling to get up for breakfast in the morning!
- comments