Ha Long Bay

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Ok so we arrived at the hotel in Ha Long bay about 6 30am. None of the rooms were ready to check in so we ate breakfast, freshened up in the bathroom and then I took a walk down to the bay. Ha Long bay has over 1600 islands and the view from the bay was pretty amazing. There was a lot of mist out on the sea so the islands that I could see in the distance looked really majestic.

When I went back to the hotel one room was ready and luckily for me Marta had grabbed it because of her stinking hangover so I could finally get a shower! At midday we set of for our six hour boat trip. It was a big Vietnamese yacht which was way too big for the nine of us! When we got on we were served wine and all sorts of sea food including giant king prawns and crab. We then stopped off at a cave which was inside one of the islands. It was beautiful. It was all lit up inside and reminded me of being in a cathedral because it was so huge and a lot of the stalactites and stalagmites looked like organ pipes. There was also a lot that looked like trees!

We then got back on the boat and continued our journey. There was a massive storm brewing. We kept hearing thunder in the distance and the sky was black. Not too long after it came down. It was pretty breathtaking being surrounded by all these islands in the middle of a storm. However, it got too wet to stay on the top deck so we came back inside and the drinking games commenced... again.

The storm didn't last too long so I was soon able to go back out again. I can't even describe what it was like sailing through these islands. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I have taken some pictures but none of them really capture it properly - it was like something from a dream. There were even quite a few hawks flying about and circling overhead. The boat then stopped in between a load of the islands and we all jumped in for a swim (apart from Marta who was so hungover she forgot her costume). It was so amazing to be swimming in the middle of these islands watching the hawks. It started to rain a little bit while we were in there but it was really nice as the rain was cool and the sea was really warm. After we got back on deck we had about an hour ride back to shore in which we carried on the drinking games and were all a little bit tipsy by the time we got to dry land.

Afterwards we went to dinner and again did not eat traditional food! However, this time I blame it on Tim as he said that he was going to eat a $10 cheeseburger. He didn't advise us to join him as it was expensive and wasn't in the traditional roam Vietnam style but he only got to go there once every couple of months so that was his plan. We couldn't leave him to eat on his own so we all went!. They were good. And massive. And I had another cheesecake for dessert.

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