Ha long bay

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Its a three hour bus journey to Halong City and we had got to know most of the people on our tour by the time we got there. A mixed group with people from all over the world and lots of different languages. We boarded the boat and were pleasantly surprised. Our cabin was small but clean and nice and the food was lovely.
Seeing Halong Bay from a distance looks impressive enough but when you get up close to the rocks its like they are surrounding you. The strangest thing was how quiet it all is with hardly any wildlife except for some eagles circling overhead, adding to the eeiriness. It is a truly magical place and a welcome break from the chaos of the city.
The boat stopped at a cave and we all disembarked. Stepping off the boat I tripped on a huge broken chunk of metal hanging off the boat and cut my toe which really hurt. The tour guide told me to "be more careful next time". It was all I could do to stop myself from swearing at her. Health and safety is not a concern in Asia.

The caves were fun, they had rocks (vaguely) shaped like different things, kind of like Wookey Hole. One rock was quite obviously shaped like a mans rude parts, and yes we did giggle like little kids. She tried telling us that it was a finger but we weren't buying it.
We were given an hour to go kayaking which was loads of fun but very tiring, mostly because I did all the rowing whilst Steve "took photos".
The best part of the day was swimming off the boat whilst the sun went down. We were told however that we had to batten down the hatches as a storm was a'brewin'. They weren't wrong either. The storm moved towards us like a wall of darkness. We didn't mind though as dinner was served and the beers came out. The only downside was a sleepless night with thunder cracking right overhead and the following day being cancelled. We weren't too bothered as we were heading back that day anyway but other people had booked three days and had to go back. I was looking forward to a morning swim but they told me it wasn't possible, they thought I was mad for wanting to swim in the rain. But I thought, well you get wet anyway so whats the problem?
Over the two days it emerged that we had paid more for our trip than the other people on the tour, and got exactly the same. We had paid $60 and everyone else paid $40-$45, annoyed with our hotel (more about that later...) but we still had loads of fun. I would definately reccommend a trip to Halong Bay, just dont get ripped off.

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