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We finally reached the part of the tour I have been looking for the most - Ha Long Bay.
We had to first drive four hours to get to Ha Long, stopping after 2 hours at a sculpture and noodle place. The rest stop was impressive. As soon as you walk in there were workers sewing satin pictures and the finished ones are stacked on a couple of tables. The pictures were nice but I wish we had more time to spend browsing through the pile, since they pictures weren't sorted. Ended up purchasing two and bargining the price down an additional $30. The rest stop also had jewelry, clothing, sculptures, and home decorations for sale.
Once we reached Ha Long, we took a small boat to our junk boat; the small boat was only able to hold 15 people so we had to go into two groups. Once aboard we had lunch, which included: prawns (full ones that you had to break open yourself), crab cakes that were stuffed inside the body of a crab, mussels (only tried one.. didn't like how it tasted), squid, rice, and seaweed.
Then it was time for kayaking, and since it was a two person kayak I went with Nicole who said that the last time she kayaked was when she was 12. Since it was my first time kayaking we figured we could lag behind the group together. Getting onto the kayak from the boat was a bit awkward and I was afraid I was going to capsize the kayak but I didn't.
About 10 minutes in we saw two Irish guys in the water, after they capsized their kayak. Since Nicole and I were so close to the guys they tried to use our kayak to return back to theirs; however, as they tried they rocked our kayak and we just ended up yelling at them and telling them to get away from us and we rowed backwards to get far away from them. We didn't want to get stuck in the same position as them. We were being mean. Ha. Eventually, after about 15 more minutes the Irish lads ended up being rescued by our tour guide... they ended up having to return to our junk boat and get into a new kayak while the junk boat crew scooped out all the water in their kayak.
We then kayaked through a tunnel and into a lagoon where we got to see grey little monkeys. They were cute but they blended into the background, so it was difficult to see all of them.
After kayaking, we headed off to a beach where we climbed up some 265 odd steps to the top of a mountain in order to see the bay from an impressive view. Except the hike up to the top was gruelling and it felt like it took forever. But once I got back to the bottom I just sat on the beach relaxing until it was time to go.
Once back to our junk boat, it was time for dinner. We ended up having: full baby crab, chicken fried rice, vegetables, prawns, chicken, and beef with bean sprouts.
After dinner, we had a pirate themed party; although, only 9 of us dressed up in that theme. But we had a good time and partied until 12, at that time the music was shut off as the crew had to go to bed (they slept in the dining area where we were partying). So a few of us went up to the top of the boat to hang out for a bit longer.
It was a fun day. I really enjoyed Hoi An and Ha Long Bay the best out of the entire trip throughout Vietnam.
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Painter Have you got a big enough suitcase for all your treasures? Ship some of it home if need be so you're not struggling with it all. We're looking forward to seeing all your goodies!