Up early for breaky then picked up for our trip to Ha Long Bay. Drizzled most of the way down (3 1/2 hours) so the beautiful limestone cliffs very misty and ethereal. Our ' vietnamese junk' was the smaller 10 cabin Phoenix Cruiser'. Beautiful boat , cabins gorgeous and lovely and clean. Cannot even hear the motors as you cruise along. 15 of us all up. 6 French and 3 Californians and the 7 of us. Set sail at about 1 pm eating beautiful seafood lunch in the dining room with heaters on as very cold outside. Afterwards we went up on top deck which in summer would be beautiful sun lounges etc. But the views were unbelievable. Can't imagine how much better it must look with blue skies and blue water.
Then onto smaller boat to go into the caves through the limestone mountains- huge and spectacular - then Poppy returned to the big boat and the rest of us went kayaking. Wayne with Kobe, Lewis with Grandy and Liam with Rob. - which proved a problem as they were both captains of their kayak and if they had of been sailing would have won as they 'tacked' so often. Probably did twice the distance of the other kayaks!
Grandy did an awesome job and at 75 we were pretty proud she gave it a crack.
Pretty cold and wet by the time we hit back to big boat but the 3 boys along with the 3 Americans decided to jump off the top of the boat (approx. 3 stories high) into the ocean. Froze their butts off but some great video.
Hot showers and boys playing cards with the American dudes. Wayne, Rob, Poppy and Grandy watched the beautiful lights of all the other boats anchored around the bay. Gorgeous.
Dinner at 7 and huge amount which we could not get through pretty bland though. Kobe played cards with Americans and Poppy, Wayne, Lewis and Liam cranked out games of euchre and speed.
Grandy and Rob got the oldies cabin changed as heater not working properly and didn't want to find them frozen in the morning.
Bed by 10pm but boys still up playing cards with Americans.
Our guide on boat is a bit of a pain in the backside! Way too pushy and running on a timetable.