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Published: June 30th 2010
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After spending a night in the jungle on a thin mat on a wooden platform and the following night in the Bangkok airport, we decided to treat ourselves in Hanoi. I used my hilton points and got us a room at the Hilton Opera Hotel in Hanoi. It was a refreshing treat and we were able to get rested and ready for our trip to Halong Bay. We did manage to get out and see the city before we left. Actually more of it than we planned. We were directionally challenged and set off without a map. Our hotel looked very close to all of the sights we wanted to see and we figured there was no way we'd get lost. After an hour or so of walking through busy streets avoiding motos and bicycles and not having any idea where we were, we finally agreed to hail a taxi and get a ride back to the hotel. We got cleaned up and set off again that afternoon, with a map and a better idea of our surroundings. The old quarter of Hanoi is very unique and it would have been nice to have more time to explore it.
The next
day we were picked up at the hotel for the three hour ride to Halong City. The ride trough the countryside offered plenty of nice views of lush farms and rice paddies. We traveled with three couples who were to become our bunkmates on the junk boat for the overnight trip. We arrived at the pier and were quickly ferried to our boat, the Jewel of the Bay. There were seven crewmen and eight passengers on board. Halong Bay is so beautiful with photo opportunities in every direction. We set sail into the bay along with hundreds, maybe thousands, of other boats but the area is so vast it didn't feel overun once we cleared the coast. During our trip we made a few stops, the first was an enormous limestone cave on one of the karsts. Although the cave was crowded with tourists it was an impressive sight.
Our next stop involved a kayak tour that took us through a water cave into a somewhat secluded cove. We explored the area and headed back to the boat where we would be anchored for the night. Back on board the boat we were treated to some outstanding meals. The meals
were family style dining with a variety of mostly seafood dishes. I was really surprised by the quality and presentation of the food that kept coming from the tiny galley. We certainly hadn't eaten this well anywhere on our trip. We had some time between meals for some swimming of the deck of the boat. I managed a couple of akward belly flops from the top deck before retiring to the boat. Chris and I passed the time with a few games of chess and of course a couple of cold beverages.
The next day we set off for an island with a small beach and a long climb to the the
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anonymous
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tour company
Hey, I enjoyed reading your post! I was wondering if you could tell me how much you paid for your tour and with which company you booked it. I´m researching for our trip there in September. Cheers, Steve