Halong Bay

We started our three day tour of Halong Bay with a four hour minibus ride from Hanoi to Halong City. We then had an hour wait before boarding our junk ship for lunch, and sailing the short distance to our first stop of the afternoon, a huge cave. The cave was massive and really impressive, with some of the best cave structures we have ever seen. However, the experience was tainted slightly due to the sheer volume of tourists and the neon lighting they consider appropriate for lighting up the cave - tacky!

Back on the junk ship, we had a fantastic afternoon sailing peacefully through the spectacular limestone formations and islands of the bay. We sailed through to Cat Ba Island to pick up a couple of passengers before doing a U-turn for a small floating fishing village that rented out kayaks to tourists. We enjoyed getting a closer look at the islands from our kayak and were particularly surprised to come across the most remote ATM we have ever seen! After watching sunset from the kayak, we (or rather just Jen) was treated to fresh crab and beer by the locals who understood no English but were happy to share and smile a lot!

After a sound night's sleep in our luxury cabin aboard the junk ship we were dropped off at Cat Ba Island for day two of the tour. The first activity of the day was a hot and sweaty hike to the top of a dodgy old tower in the heart of Cat Ba National Park. The views from the top were amazing but we were reluctant to stay at the top of the rusting tower for too long - it looked like it would break at any moment!

We were then transferred to our hotel in Cat Ba town, where we used our free afternoon to explore the beaches. Unfortunately, it is a very popular destination for Vietnamese holiday makers as well as Western tourists, and we can quite easily say that we have never seen so many people on a beach at the same time! However, we found a peaceful corner and relaxed with a couple of legendary Vietnamese ice coffees.

The next day was just a traveling day, but we got to sail back through the beautiful Halong Bay again, and the high winds and raging storm made it quite a different experience! During our final lunch in Halong Bay City we randomly met a Malaysian couple from Kuala Lumpur who had lived in Bradford for a while. They had been to Ilkley Moor, Chellow Dene, Haworth, Thornton and more - bizarre!

We were back in Hanoi by 5pm, and in time for a shower and takeaway pizza before boarding the nightbus at 6pm to Hoi An...