Halong Bay

We signed up to do a tour of Halong Bay through our hostel. It was more expensive than some other tours offered but we knew it would be good quality and a lot of fun. We're allowed to splurge occasionally.  It was totally worth it! We had so much fun, met some great people, did all kinds of activities, and ate some delicious food!  We were very luck with the weather it was hot and sunny most of the time.  It rained a tiny bit first thing on the second day but then cleared right up. We've been over budget the last few days so now we need to be a little more frugal to make up for it!

Oct 13 – Halong Bay, The Jolly Roger

We were up early to meet up with the group, there were 52 of us, and get on the bus. It was a 4hr ride to Halong Bay. We stopped at a pottery place halfway there for a rest stop. The stuff was all over priced but you could go into the workshop and see the them making vases and such. There were also women doing some incredible needle point pictures of Halong Bay, other Vietnamese scenes and animals. We were a little tempted to get one but they were too much money. Maybe we'll see something similar in our travels for less. We arrived in Halong Bay and took a boat out to our junk, the Jolly Roger.  There were actually two boats because of all the people on our tour.  We tied up together once we were out in the bay and you hop back and forth between the boats. We had some delicious lunch, there was some amazing squid, and then were assigned our cabins and settled in. It was a beautiful day. We got to jump off the boat from the top deck, the boat had 3 floors. It was a little scary but loads of fun. The water was nice and warm. After our swim we all went kayaking. They were two man kayaks but it was a gong show with 25 boats paddling around. People were crashing into each other but some of that was on purpose. We kayaked to a cave that we were allowed to explore. Beau and I had been warned ahead of time to bring a “torch” (it's a flashlight damn it). Beau got some good use out of his head lamp. The cave was interesting to climb around in but it was quite slippery in spots so you have to be careful. From the cave we kayaked to a floating fishing village. The houses were tiny and many people had dogs on there house boats. It was starting to get dark so we returned the kayaks and headed back to the boat. Dinner was also very good, we have gotten fed very well on this boat and we've been pigging out. After dinner there was happy hour and drinking games. The drinking games were a riot. Many people were quite drunk. I didn't drink all that much but still had a blast. We met some awesome people from all over, there were lots of South Africans and British. We didn't got to bed till 2am and everyone is expected up at 7am!

Our Junk, The Jolly Roger

Halong Bay

Us in Halong Bay

Floating Fishing Village

Oct 14 – Halong Bay, Castaway Island

We were woken up a 7am this morning. Ughhh Beau and I went to bed around 2am the night before (which was early compared to some) but I slept awfully. The walls on board the ship were paper thin. We split up between the two boats one having everyone that was heading back to Hanoi and those of us headed for Castaway Island. After leaving the other boat we met up with a smaller boat and transferred onto that. It was about an hour ride to Castaway Island with some spectacular views. We passed many little floating fish farms and villages. Sadly we also saw a decent amount of garbage too. We arrived at Castaway Island and settled into our huts. Our huts consisted of roofs and were raised about 2 feet off the ground. Each little hut had 6 beds all with their own mosquito nets. We ate some lunch and got to vege for a bit on the beach. Beau went kayaking with another guy in the group. They ended up going for a 2 hour kayak. In the mean time we had the opportunity to go rock climbing, tubing and wakeboarding. I took advantage of the fact I could go wakeboarding. It was great! I took a couple bails trying to jump, probably due to a different board, boat and the sea water even felt different. It was totally worth it though. Unfortunately I tired myself out and didn't feel like I had the strength to rock climb. The water was very nice, a bit cooler than yesterday though. The weather turned out beautifully, it was actually raining and overcast when we got up, but it all cleared away for a hot sunny day. Later that evening we played some drinking games, these were more sedate/social than the night before and pretty hilarious. Some people went for a mid-night swim, there was phosphorescent algae in our area so the water kind of sparkled as you swam. Beau and I decided against a swim since it meant having to clean all the salt off again. We didn't get to bed till about 2am but we had a very fun evening.

Castaway Island

Halong Bay

On the boat to Castaway Island

Oct 15 – Back to Hanoi

It was another early 7am morning, man I'm going to be happy to get some more sleep tonight. We ate breakfast, packed up and were picked up by the smaller boat. We met back up with the Jolly Roger and transferred onto it, the new people going to Castaway Island got on the little boat. We had some down time then ate lunch. It was a pretty quiet morning with most people hungover or just tired. We got back to Halong City and got on the bus. As we got off the transfer boats the people for the next trip got on and we took their bus back. There is no down time for this tour! The ride back was long and uncomfortable. In order to cram more people onto a bus there is an aisle seat that folds down, it is not a comfortable place to sit for 4hrs! We got back to the hostel and checked back in. Then we headed off to find the train station, we need to buy tickets to Sapa, and some dinner. One of the girls at the front desk said the cab ride should only be 50,000d, but I'm not sure if we just got in the wrong of cab but the meter was up to 100,000d and we were only halfway so we walked from there. We had no trouble buying tickets, we are actually taking a train to Lao Cai and then boarding a bus to Sapa. We had some great BBQ dinner. You are given a little fire with a frying pan and a plate of beef and vegetables. It was super good. We were pretty bagged after not getting much sleep the past few day, so we headed back to the hostel. We got to chatting with one of our dorm mates and he gave us all kinds of tips for Sapa.