Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We arrived to the hectic city of Hanoi at 7pm after thrity hours of travelling and we were not in the mood for horn honking motorbike madness. We spent the next few days wandering the city searching for a tour to take us to Ha Long Bay (one which we could all agree upon) whilst trying to get rid of the Conjunctivitis we were now all suffering from thanks to Lee Graham and the tubing antics in Laos.
We finally decided on a deluxe cruise which we were told would be better food, air conditioned, have entertainment and a 3* Hotel on Cat Ba.
We were collected from the office promptly at 8.30am for the three and a half hour journey to Halong City, we all kept our sun glasses firmly in place to avoid the stares of the pink eye (plus I looked like I'd been punched so Jh put drops in for me to make it clear I hadn't been in a fight lol).
On the way we stopped off at a restaurant / gift shop for some disgusting hot dogs and instant noodles still in the water witha fried egg in (not a great choice from the four of us). We arrived at the wharf where lots of tourists awaited the journey around HaLong Bay. I have to say this part of the trip was bery unorganised (we were almost put on the wrong boat).
We arrived at the right boat after many phonecalls from the guide to the office... And so our journey began on the... HALONG PARTY CRUISER! Trust us to get on the party boat.
Lunch was served and it was much better than I expected and plentiful, by this time we had started to set sail, heading to our first location.. A huge cave (and i'm sorry I can't remember the name and neither can Jh :( )
The cave was very impressive and difficult to describe, it has become a massive tourist attraction with the locals addind lights and even an internet cafe in the middle but it was still fantastic. It was the view from outside the cave that was spectacular, HaLong Bay in all it's glory, limestone rocks contrasting with the turquoise waters, an amazing first glimpse at the beauty of Halong Bay.
After sailing for a short period (every now and again we would look out and just in awe at the view before us, non of us could believe we were somewhere so beautiful) we arrived at a local fishing village that literally floats on the waters of HaLong Bay. We each paid 50,000VND (around 1.30) extra to go swimming in a lagoon, surrounded by limestone rocks (The highlight of our visit I think) and where James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies (I think) was filmed :). It was amazing, we jumped off the boat in to, to our surprise, warm water - fantastic! The trouble was getting back into the boat, somehow we all managed.
Later we went Kayaking, racing eachother and of course Lee and Tooley charging at us, whilst we tried to fend them off with splashes, I'm surprised there weren't any injuries with the paddles - fun times.
As the sun set over Halong bay casting bold colours along the water I think wecould all agree we'd made a great choice!
After kayaking, we saw a few of the other people from our boat buying seafood form the village so we go tin on the action and bought 1kg of shrimp to accompany dinner that evening - the freshest fish I think we'll ever eat.
Night had fallen but the crew had more in store for us... Time to JUMP OFF THE BOAT! It was so scary, with it being night time, but we all did it (me and Tooley with a bit of hesitation) and stayed swimming for a while. Pierre decided to jump another four times.
The evening was spent eating fresh seafood (it's a good job as the meal was the same as lunch) and singing on Karaoke. The boys loved it, I think the highlights were: Jh's rendition of Hey Jude, Leeroys Man I Feel Like A Woman and Tooleys Sex Bomb! haha.
Day Two
Cat Ba Island.
We arrived at Cat Ba Island and there were rumours of a two hour walk a head, we were already hot and sweaty from lugging our bags off the boat, not at all prepared for a up hill walk in the National Park.
All of us in flip flops (we weren't told about the walk so non of us had our walking boots) we slipped, slid and sweated our way to the top. Honestly, the heat of the midday sun made it so much harder and I have never seen a sweatier group of people that our tour group but we made it, however some peoples flip flops did not.
A nice cold coke at the bottom :)
Back on the sweaty bus we drove the 30minutes to the 3* Hotel and oh it was lovely and the hot shower was welcomed after the walk. FAntastic lunch prepared by the hotel ( we now realised that this is where most of our money had gone) and then some people paid extra to go to Monkey Island. We decided not to go after hearing the monkeys could get voilent etc and I'm glad we didn't as one girl got bitten (don't worry not too badly but she'll still need rabies injections). We just chilled out in the town and had a relaxing afternoon.
That night we all played cards and the boys had a few beers, I think we were all tired from the hectic schedule of teh past two days.
DAY THREE: Return to HaLong City.
We all had a great time and HaLong Bay lived up to everything we expected.
- comments