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I had a lovely weekend off work by taking a tour to Halong Bay. On Saturday morning we travelled by minibus from Hanoi for 3.5 hours to Halong city. From there we boarded the Canh Buom 8, a fabulous wooden ship, complete with ensuite bedrooms, a dining room, and a roof top lounge area. The ship set sail into Halong bay, which is spectacularly beautiful with thousands of islands rising from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. The weather was gorgeous and we relaxed on the deck taking in the scenery and watching small fishing boats pass by.
We stopped at a floating village and went kayaking, which was really fun. I was in a boat with Emily; we had free range of the surrounding area so we explored a cave and paddled around the floating houses (yes, there were a few crashes!). We had one really scary moment when we suddenly realised that we were directly in the path of a huge tour boat travelling at speed, and we were seemingly too close for the driver to see us! For about 30 seconds we just panicked, screaming and not moving at all! When engine seemed to step up in volume, we came back to reality and paddled forward as fast as we could! We made it!!!! Quite an exhilarating experience. We also spent some time later that day swimming in the sea, I jumped off the middle deck of the boat, which was really scary! The water wasn't very clean but it was lovely and warm. Bizarrely there were women in small rowing boats in the water who kept trying to sell us stuff while we were swimming- as if we had our wallets on us!
The other people on the boat were really nice, and were of a similar age to us. There were two English girls (who were also medical students) called Beth and Michelle, Teegan and Erin from America, Scott from Australia, a small Dutch family, and a random man from France who couldn't speak a word of English. We were chatting on the boat late into the night, they were really good company. I was really pleased to find a fellow Johnny English enthusiast in Teegan. We all spend a good while
talking about food, as we're starting to get a bit tired of rice n veg!
On Sunday we docked at Cat Ba island. We were taken by bus to Cat Ba national park, and began trekking up to Ngu Lam Peak. It was a treacherous climb! It was incredibly muddy, and the jungle was quite dense so it was very hot and humid, with mosquitoes swarming everywhere. It was physically difficult too as for much of the way there was no marked path, you just had to clamber over slippery rocks faces. Alice, Emily, Michelle and Beth had to head back early on as they weren't wearing the right footwear, but I was determined to get to the top. I did! The view from the top over Cat Ba island was magnificent. I had to almost run back down the mountain to make it to the bus in time...I think the strain of the climb/weather conditions
caught up with me as a had a funny turn on the bus. I felt really drowsy and extremely nauseous. When we finally arrived at the hotel for lunch, I ran off the bus as I thought I was about to chunder at any moment! I didn't but I felt so weak and shaky I could barely walk or speak. This sounds quite dramatic but it really was horrid. I crashed on the hotel bed, and slept while the others had lunch. Once I had taken some Motillium, and a shower to get off all the mud, I felt a bit better. We spent the afternoon lazing around on the beach. It was a gorgeous bay, with lovely warm water, and no fish swimming around your
legs!
In the evening we wandered around Cat Ba town, and ended up being taken by boat to a floating restaurant. We were told to pick from the 'menu'- nets in the water full of different live seafood! Talk about fresh! However, we had already rated at the hotel and were just looking for an ice cream so we rather ashamedly got back on a boat that the waiter had called for us.
I had the best night sleep yet in lovely hotel room with air conditioning- heaven!
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