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South East Asia Travels '12
Today we took a trip to Halong bay, one of seven natural wonders of the world! We got picked up from the hotel by a bus and had a three hour trip to the bay. The guide was a young lady called Seven like the number 7, she was very nice and so funny. She told us some cultural facts about Vietnam, like how to gesture someone over politely.
When we arrived at the bay, the outside of the boat didn't quite look like the picture that we were shown in the brochure but nobody really cared. The dining room area was nice and the rooms below deck were pretty awesome with showers and that and also a there was a poop deck on top of course :). We were told that we were very lucky because the previous day there had been a storm out in Halong bay! But we were super lucky and had amazing weather! As we sailed out we got given a feast fit for kings for lunch. Half way in to tucking in, I looked up from scoffing my face and saw the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life, the floating islands. Seven told us that there are like over 1700 islands in Halong bay! First stop was to a cave. It was called the surprising cave. It had three parts to the cave, each one getting bigger and the last one was huge. We then found out why it was called the surprising cave... Due to a certain dirty shaped rock. Took us a while to notice it, but it was highlighted with red lights.
Next we got to go kayaking in the waters of Halong bay. That was pretty surreal and an incredible feeling! We all had a little race around one of the islands, Jessie and Sam claim to have come first and me and Isaac apparently came second, although not so sure as there wasn't a set finish line. Ben and Nic ended up far behind as there kayak was sinking! After racing me and Isaac decided to jump off the kayak into the water, bit of struggle back into the kayak but the struggle was definitely worth it for the swim in the divinest water.
Later we drove on some more in the cruise boat and anchored down for the evening and night. We got to go swimming by the boat before having another feast for dinner. Lots of jumping off the boat into the sea, the marfs we are, me and Jessie were strapped up to our life jackets and were bobbing along for most of the time.
Next we got to go kayaking in the waters of Halong bay. That was pretty surreal and an incredible feeling! We all had a little race around one of the islands, Jessie and Sam claim to have come first and me and Isaac apparently came second, although not so sure as there wasn't a set finish line. Ben and Nic ended up far behind as there kayak was sinking! After racing me and Isaac decided to jump off the kayak into the water, bit of struggle back into the kayak but the struggle was definitely worth it for the swim in the divinest water.
Later we drove on some more in the cruise boat and anchored down for the evening and night. We got to go swimming by the boat before having another feast for dinner. Lots of jumping off the boat into the sea, the marfs we are, me and Jessie were strapped up to our life jackets and were bobbing along for most of the time.
After dinner we had some cocktails which seemed more like mocktails but tasted good nonetheless, I had a few heavenly almond ones. The rest of the night included chilling, dangling our legs of the edge of the boat, looking at stars, chatting and night time squid fishing, accompanied with Sam's selection of blues and country music. Squid fishing was pretty fun but unsuccessful, we dipped our fish lines in the water and bobbed the lines up and down to mimic shrimp. Weren't so lucky with any catches but almost got a crab a couple times. Moved to the poop deck for more chill time and chatted to a Canadian guy about travels and that.
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