Halong Bay

---

Just returned back to the hussle and bussle of Hanoi after a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a series of over 3000 islands that rise from the clear, emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. We took a 4 hour coach drive down tobus drive down to the pier, where we boarded a beautiful boat to take us through Halong Bay. On our boat we had a group of 11 some of whom were on a 2 day some on a 3 day but we knew we were going to be spending at least 1 day with them. Amongst the crowd was an irish lad by the name of Rori who had his acoustic guitar with him, and a canadian guy who was studying Law in Hong Kong but was travelling around whilst in between studies (he also played guitar). The rest of the crew was made up of an english guy, canadian girl, an elderly swiss lady, 2 swiss sisters, a french couple (who kept themselves to theirselves) and of course the 2 Essex boys.

The boat ride through the bay was breathtaking, and was great to kick back and take in the scenery over a few beers, and some tanning action. First stop was to the 'amazing cave' which was very cool. This was followed by some kayaking. We were given some directions and 1 hour to go to explore. Neal and I set off at a reasonable pace but were tending to vear right, Neal thought this was due to our stronger right arm, but I was convinced that when you paddle to to the right hand side of the boat it should go left, either way we were shit at kayaking. Our route took us underneath a cove of one of the islands and into a massive lagoon which was surrounded by the rocky islands (picture the scene in the beach), it was eerily quiet when we stopped laughing and paddling.

A few of the others guys took off their lifejackets and went for a dip, which looked appealing so I decided to have a go, Neal had warned me about my exit into the water (Don't tip this thing over you fat c#*t!!!), so I proceeded to get in after giving my paddle to Neal to hold onto, I plunged into the water feet first and unfortunately the force of my guns on the side of boat, tipped to Kayak upside down, not before Neal fell in too. Our faces must of been a picture, and after just about managing to stop laughing we managed to get ourselves back into the kayak, minus my paddle which Neal had dropped in the comotion and was now 20 m down at the bottom of the ocean. We struggled back to the boat where we then sailed to our evening docking point which was in the middle of another lagoon, where we were able to jump into water from the top the boat and have a leisurely swim.

Now for the evening entertainment, had a group dinner of various seafood, rice and spring rolls, and tiger beer after tiger beer, plus we got involved with some crabs that the boat crew had dished up for themselves (delicious) and their tipple of Vietnamese whickey (which warmed me up a bit). After some chit chat over dinner, it was time for the sing along. Rori (aka Fran from Travis) was amazing on acoustic, and could play pretty much any tune we asked for, so you can imagine this was right up my street as I demanded him to play song after song. My personal favourites for the evening were the pogues, american pie and the verve. Retired to bed about midnight, but had to sleep in a room which was right next to the pump of the boat, so my sleep was quite disrupted.

The second day we were salied to Cat Ba island( which is the biggest of them all and the one that is inhabited) for trek through the national park and up a mountain for a stunning view over the island. This was followed by some more kayaking and more swimming, Neal decided he better use the boat's rubber ring to swim to shore as he'd been getting a bit panicky later (he took some stick for this)


Second night we spent in a hotel at Cat Ba island, not much going on here, but we still managed to find a karaoke bar where Neal started the evening off with another random song choice of Daddy Cool, which was followed by our rendition of Hello ( which is now our trademark) and a very bad attempt at Charmless Man.

The last day started with another hangover, but fortunately there was no kayaking, only a bit of swimming and some tanning to be donw on the top deck of the boat. Had a lunch back at the pier before setting back of a rammed coach to Hanoi. Our 2 tour guides we found out were both into their karaoke too, and they decided to sing us a few songs on the way back which was hilarious. Our mate Rori almost chipped in with a few, so the coach ride back was better than I thought it was going to be.

Anyway that was Halong Bay..... next up Hue....

---