Wonderland Ha long- the boat trip

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We arrived here after visiting Sapa, we took a sleeper bus from Sapa......this was a long ass haul of 8 hours through the night! We had such a ball ache booking the sleeper bus back and ended up waiting in the unfriendliest travel agent we had ever met, who refused to close the doors in 6 degree heat! We actually thought due to the language barrier (we only learnt to say "how much" and "OMG that's too expensive") that we were never going to get back to Hanoi! Eventually the bus came and the grumpy tour guide tried to take our bus passes off us so we couldn't board the bus (which Aimee and Bec fought with him so hard)??. We spent the next 8 hours getting back to Hanoi, for a 4 hour wait to get on our next bus, which was an additional 6 hour journey, we were completely whacked!



We arrived in Ha long after the most uncomfortable journey ever, to very cold and dismal weather, however Lisa myself Aimee and Bec were so excited to be in a new place we didn't let this deter us! We checked in at the four seasons? Spending £3.75 a night there, breakfast included! We shortly found that nobody spoke any English (google translate favourited)and the breakfast was ALWAYS cold..... Although he language barrier was difficult the owner (man in his 50's) always found ways of communicating, hugging us every time he saw us sumo style, hitting us on our feet when not wearing shoes, taking 100's of pictures when he could.



We had all dreamed about sleeping on the boat under the stars and kayaking to the caves and was the one thing in Vietnam we had actually planned! However due to cash flow and crappy weather these dreams were short lived! So the next day we checked out the weather and saw a glimmer of sunshine on the Thursday of that week, so booked a 6 hour trip to go round the 1969 islands that it had to offer with meals included, kayaking, visiting the fishing village, the caves and view point, which was a very steep trek up yet another mountain. The day was the closest we had gotten to sunshine, but as the kayaking got closer and the thought of falling in the ocean filled us with fear. Lisa and Bec spent 20 minutes hitting the caves whilst a group of Australians video' there ordeal! After spending 50% of the time waiting for Bec and Lisa we hit the rest of the caves and proudly got back on the boat, high fiving one another with mahoosive smiles.

We went back to the boat for a well received meal, we were served fish, clams, rice, spring rolls, omelette, chicken which was amazing!





We finished the trip talking to a family from Australia, Brisbane who told us where the best places in Australia we would visit!





I loved Ha long bay however next time I will do this in Summer

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