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Published: December 7th 2006
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Halong Bay
In amongst the rocky outcrops of Halong Bay- absolutely stunning! What a magical three days! Halong Bay is all that it was made out to be - amazing scenery, awesome seafood and a damn good time!
We left Hanoi on Sunday morning and travelled on the bus to Halong City - a group of 16 of us on a bus with very little suspension - not the most comfortable ride! After 3 hours we arrived at Halong City where we had a big seafood lunch before boarding the boat - a three level boat with twin cabins down the bottom, tables/seating in the middle, and then an open deck with deck chairs on top!
The first night was to be spent on the boat, anchored in a calm cove somewhere in the middle of the bay. We had a couple of stops in the afternoon - the first to have a tour through the biggest cave in Halong Bay - massive but nothing overly spectacular, and the second stop for a swim - much more exciting! I had been busting for a swim for 3 weeks in the hot humid weather of Hanoi and this was finally our chance! Jumping off the deck of the boat following much peer pressure
Swimming in Halong
Ange and I enjoying the water! was one highlight - although it also definately highlighted my need for a new pair of bathers...its not a good sign when you lose them on entry to the water!! After an hour of classic catches off the side of the boat we were told our time was up by the captain, and we proceeded to where we would dock for dinner.
The night was very pleasant - enjoying a drink on the deck followed by a seafood dinner and plenty of cards. We attempted to blow up the lie-lows on deck to sleep under the stars, but when after 5 minutes of lying on them they were flat, and hence a soft mattress below deck was the comfortable option!
Day 2 we awoke at about 6.30ish for a pre-breakfast swim - its not every day that you can dive off a boat into such amazing scenery before sitting down to breaky! We then sailed to Cat Ba Island which is the biggest in Halong Bay - thousands of floating houses and fishing boats lying about 200m off the main town.
Our view from our hotel room was beautiful, but we had little time to enjoy it intially as
Contemplating.....
Building up the courage to jump - the trick is to look to the horizon and not down! we were soon off to visit another cave in the south-west of the island, via a little dingy put put boat, followed by an awesome lunch on the boat as we sailed to Monkey Island.
Monkey Island was not a large island - but had a nice little beach, and a very short but steep and sharp climb to the top for views. Following our decent back to the beach, we took yet another opportunity to have a swim, this time swimming back to the boat from the shore. We were lucky enough to catch sight of a few monkeys, but missed their show as we were swimming - apparently they approached a few of our tour group members and attempted to drink their coke!
Once back on Cat Ba we prepared to celebrate Caths 21st (it was the next day but we started early!). A few pre d's on the balcony were followed by possibly the most amazing seafood Ive ever eaten - I know thats a big call, but my lemon and garlic shrimps were to die for! And it was fresh too - straight out of the tank and into the saucepan! All up we
Evidence!
One of many jumps off the top of the boat! paid about $5 each - pretty bloody good for the amount of food we consumed!
And as if the seafood wasnt enough, Cath, Ali and Ange decided that somehow they could manage a pancake and Pina Colada - both of which were beautiful, but left them feeling excessively full! Cath swore she was the first person to wake up on her 21st birthday feeling sick due to excessive consumption of food and not alcohol!
On a final day the weather turned on a real show - blue sky and beautiful sun - perfect for one final swim on return to Halong City. The boat anchored in a cove and we all took one last chance to jump of the deck into the water below - with one of our fellow tour dudes filming our jumps - hopefully he will email them soon and you can check out the horror on our faces! We had yet another seafood feast at the restaurant in Halong City before the long trip back to Hanoi - although we were all pretty stuffed so plenty of sleeping was on the cards!
Back in Hanoi once again, we grabbed our packs from the
Rowing to Monkey Island
Half our tour group on the row boat to the island.... hotel, and set out to have a second celebration for Caths 21st before boarding an 11pm train to Danang (heading south down the coast). We enjoyed one last dinner at 'Le Place' - a favourite of ours - and then headed off for 'all you can eat Fanny's' - a deal at the best icecream shop on the lake in Hanoi. We had been hanging out for this opportunity to try every single flavour of Fanny icecream, and we'd read that on the first Tuesday of every month it was all you can eat, so Cath in particular was looking forward to it. But we were devasted to find that the deal did not exist on this one Tuesday - however it didnt deter Cath from having a total of about 6 scoops - not as good as all you can eat, but a pretty good start never the less!
And so that brings me to now - where we have started the next part of our trip, south down the coast in Hoi An. The weather is warm but there has been a lot of rain so we are hoping that not too much has been washed away!
Climbing on Monkey Island
Very very sharp rocky outcrops! I hope next time I write I will still have some money left - as the tailoring of clothing here is all too accessible and relatively cheap!
Hope all is well wherever you are, would love to hear from you! 😊
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