Halong Bay....A..MAZ..ING

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Hello everyone!

It's friday and I got back from the beautiful Halong Bay yesterday, the best thing so far on my trip, no lie.

So at Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, in Hanoi suprisingly, I met up with a few lads I knew from Bangkok and some people they had picked up along the way. That's 13 of us in total. Instead of doing the Hostel's own Halong Bay tour (which by all accounts is x-rated and drunken) we decided to hire our own boat and do the trip ourselves. I'm so glad we did.

We booked a tour through Backpackers Tour Operators down the road from the hostel and the boat we got was with AST. Because there were so many of us we managed to barter down the price from $90 to $75 and we had the boat to ourselves, sweet!

I was pretty doubtful of the quality of the tour to be honest, having read some horrendous reviews, but we had such a great time from when were picked up to when we were dropped off back at the hostel.

Our guide was called Tam, and he was a 5ft legend. If you decide to do a tour through AST ask for him personally! Our boat was amazing, and being the only single lady on board I managed to wrangle a private ensuite room, with a balcony. There arent many better ways to start the day than by opening up a door to see the islands of Halong. The only negative was that to have a shower, I had to sit on the toilet, but considering some of the facilities I have endured (and endured is an understatement) I am really nitpicking.

The tour included a visit to Suprise Cave, kayaking, swimming, a visit to Cat Ba Island with a trek to the summit and a night in a hotel. Added extras that our little Tam threw in at his own effort was rock climbing, and a night of Kareoke - watching our guide belt out a tuneless version of Lional Ritchie's Hello, possibly one of the funniest and most surreal moments of my life.

I have to tell you a bit more about the trek to Cat Ba's summit because it was fairly eventful. Unfortunately half the group forgot their walking boots so had to negotiate near sheer cliff faces in fake haviana flip flops. It was a really strenous trek, largely because we had had a rather late night previously, and hadnt been forewarned by Tam that we had to be ready for breakfast for 7am (he certainly felt the wrath of hungover Brits, Aussies, Irish Man and Canadians that morning).
The problem is that the summit is about 10 square metres wide, with a narrow path sufficient only for one way traffic. Add to that several boats worth of sweaty tourists and it is a receipe for mayhem. At the top of Cat Ba Mountain is a observation tower that gives you panoramic views of the island. The tower looks like it was possibly built in the middle ages, there isnt a piece of it which isnt covered in rust, and half the floor boards of the observation deck are either missing, or broken. So we had to go up in 5's so it wouldnt collapse and only let one person stand on a floor board at once. But it was worth it, the view was stunning, and totally cured my sore head.

So now I'm back in Hanoi, I was meant to leave for Hoi An tonight on the sleeper bus, but we have had a lazy day today because it's been throwing it down with rain all day. So my plan for the next few days is to get the sleeper bus with 10 other people tommorow, spend a few days in Hoi An, maybe get some clothes made, then bus to Mui Ne for the sand dunes and Nha Trang for a beach break before hitting Saigon. I have about 2 weeks to finish Vietnam. Keep all your fingers and toes crossed that the flooding in Cambodia and Thailand has resolved, otherwise I may have to rethink my route for my last month. Apparently Bangkok is hitting the headlines because of renewed flood risks, the roads out of the city are gridlocked with people evacuating before they strike. Let's hope their arent anymore fatalties.

Right, I am going to lounge about on a bean bag for a while - it's a hard life.

Love to everyone xxx

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