Halong Bay Days 32 - 34 and Hanoi 35-37

We had an early start for our Halong bay trip, we were a little concerned about the weather as it was still pretty hazy and we hadn't really seen the sun for 3 weeks. We also weren't really sure what to expect from our trip as we heard so many mixed reviews about trips to Halong bay and the company we eventually booked through didn't seem to have the best reputation but anyway we thought we would give it a go. First signs looked pretty good as the bus to Halong bay wasn't the cattle truck we were expecting and the people in our group seemed pretty cool. We got to our boat around midday, it looked a tad shabby here and there but is was afloat so we took this as a good sign. We then headed out into the bay, the weather was still pretty misty but this actually added to atmosphere of the trip as the numerous limestone rocks loomed out of the mist, it was quite eerie. Our first stop was a big cave and then we were able to go kayaking around the bay in 2 man kayaks...this went pretty well until Tina got seasick and we had to go back in......who knew you could get seasick on a kayak???. We then headed back to the boat to cruise through the bay to where we were due to park the boat for the night. In the evening we had some food on the boat and then had karaoke forced on us by the crew of the boat which made for an interesting evening.On the second day we did some cycling on a nearby island and then headed to the private island where we were due to spend the night. The island was called Monkey island and we were staying in a beach hut which had great view out into Halong bay, it was pretty sweet! The afternoon was pretty chilled, I played some footy with some Dutch lads who were in our group and Tina had a chat with some of the girls on the tour. We then went on a walk to meet some evil monkeys. Before the walk the guide gave us a some tips about the monkeys which could be summarised as they might bite you and we are not sure if the have rabies....as you can imagine this filled us with zero to minimal confidence, especially given we were at least 24 hours from the nearest rabies jab! The walk went ok but the monkeys were very aggressive so it wasn't really a pleasurable walk as you were constantly looking around waiting for evil little monkeys to attack you, in fact it was quite a relief once we got back into our resort area.
That evening was a another round of karaoke but it was much more fun as the guys in the group knew each other a lot better and everyone got much more involved, I opted to sing what I thought was an rather awesome and touching version of 'Wonderful tonight' although I might have been the only one in the group who held that opinion. The highlight of the evening had to be an random moment when the whole group got up and danced the macarena, I had to freestyle due to my limited knowledge of the dance moves, but felt I held my own. The staff in the restaurant were in hysterics at all the crazy foreigners randomly dancing around and a few of them recorded videos of us on their phones!The final day was a cruise back to the port and then bus ride back to Hanoi. We then had a few days in Hanoi which we used to chill out and explore the city a little further a field from where we were based in the old quarter.