Halong Bay

After the smog and chaos of Hanoi we were looking forward to some chill out time bobbing around on a boat in Ha long Bay. Having had some well deserved lie ins for the previous few mornings, a half past 6 start was not a welcome thought! We managed it though and made it down for breakfast on time. Soon after, we were told that our bus had arrived and were hurried out of the hostel and onto a coach. Having travelled all of 5 minutes down the road, the tour guide told us that this was not our tour and that we would have to leave his coach and get on another. Turns out that the next bus we got on was not our tour either and that we were being picked up 'as a favour' to the tour company we had actually booked with! He assured us that he would help us to locate our tour when we arrived at the harbour. Not a great start and alarm bells definitely started to ring, wondering whether we would even make it onto a boat. We had 4 hours to wonder as Halong City is 197km away and the bus went at a typically slow speed due to the chaos on the roads. I could never ever drive in this country, there are no lanes, no rules and overtaking happens regardless of whether there is traffic coming or not!

When we arrived at Halong City we joined the crowds of other tourists and made our way through the harbour, following the guide from our bus. True to his word, he helped us to find our tour guide and we joined the rest of our tour group - relief! We then had to follow the shortest Vietnamese man in history through the crowds to a small transfer boat. Just as the worry was starting to disappear, an official harbour master began shouting to the tour guide from the shore asking us to come back. So back we went and a whole array of paperwork was produced by the captain and analysed by the harbour master. We were then asked to move into another transfer boat as the boat we were currently sitting in was apparently not safe to transfer tourists in! Honestly. All we could do was laugh by this point and move our stuff onto another boat. Finally, our boat for the next 3 days came into view and we could relax!

After boarding the boat, we checked into our cabin. Tom was having a nose around the room and came across an axe and a hammer in the bedside cabinet! Not really sure what they were for but luckily we didn't have to use them. Might have been handy in an argument though!! We sat down for the first of our meals on the boat and met the people we would be sharing it with - it was a really international group Israeli, Czech, Swiss, Canadian, American, Korean, French and Australian. Interesting!!

Having munched down some amazing seafood, we boarded a smaller boat to take us to the 'Cave of Surprise'. I'm still not really sure what the 'surprise' was. The cave was pretty impressive to walk around. Perhaps the surprise was our slightly insane tour guide pointing out rock formations that he thought looked like Lady GaGa - seriously! Having taken in the awesome views of the bay from the cave, we made our way back to the boat and headed off to kayak around the bay. WOW! It's been a while since I've been in a kayak so luckily we were given a joint kayak (Tom wasn't happy because he wanted his own and he was really unhappy when he was asked to sit at the back!) To be honest, we made a pretty good team and steamed around the karsts and floated through tiny caves - amazing! We rejoined the main boat as the sun set. Some of the guys decided to jump from the top deck of the boat into the sea. I took the safer role and videoed them - it was really high, there was no chance of me jumping!

Before dinner, we joined our tour guide on the top deck for a quick cooking class - making spring rolls. We both had a go at rolling and frying the spring rolls and I think we did a pretty good job - they tasted amazing anyway! Afterwards, we had a go at squid fishing. We joined a group of Americans, who had been on the boat the previous day, at the back of the boat. We all sat patiently, dangling our rods over the side, whilst chatting and drinking cans of the coldest beer. We had a great night but sadly caught nothing apart from a Joker playing card!

The following day, we were up early again and set off for a days activities with a local tour guide. He was an interesting guy with really yellow teeth and could barely speak a word of English. Helpful, when he was our guide for the day and supposed to be explaining the different sights we were to be seeing throughout the day. I don't know who was more frustrated by this, us or the Czech couple that were relying on us to translate what the guide was saying for them to understand. Needless to say, we had an interesting day, with Tom becoming increasingly irritated that the many questions he was asking the guide would remain unanswered as the poor guy had no idea what he was saying - brilliant! Despite this, we had a really good day! We visited a pearl farm (where Tom ate the oyster after they had removed the pearl!), a floating village (God only knows how families live in houses bobbing around on the water - there was even a floating school!) and a beautiful secluded sandy beach. Travelling between these places, we had plenty of time to sunbathe on the deck and kayak through some tiny caves to amazing hidden lakes. One cave was so small that we had to lie down in the kayak and push our way through with our hands! Tom finished the day again by hurling himself off the boat and into the water for a swim. Still not feeling brave enough, I took the steps!

After another fantastic seafood dinner, we headed to the back of the boat with fishing rods, determined to catch some squid. A guy from Korea decided to join us and even brought some bait along in the hope that we might catch something. After a good few hours, my patience ran out and I gave up! The others were not far behind. I'm still not convinced that anyone has ever caught any squid from that boat despite the guide telling us that 'lots of tourists do' - rubbish!

The boat headed back to the harbour the following day. We had one final chance to sunbathe on the deck and take in the sights of the bay. It's such a beautiful place, you must go if you ever have the chance. We caught the bus back to Hanoi and have one final night here before we head further south down the coast. We've booked ourselves onto another sleeper train to take us to a place called Hue - 14 hours of high class luxury here we come - haha! Vietnam has been amazing so far, can't wait to see what it has in store for us next!

Lots of love,

Shell xxxxx