Halong Bay and Hanoi

---

Halong Bay was amazing!!! We are below budget for asia (as everything is so cheap!) and decided to splash out in Halong Bay and book ourselves on a posh boat. Because we booked the boat on day of departure we were able to talk them down on rate by about 50% so we were very pleased with that. The boat was called The Jasmine with the company Cruise Halong which we would strongly recommend. We each got our own bathrobes, slippers, swish bathrooms and a private balcony. There were about 12 other people on the boat but we were not very social which was good as we were pretty tired and not up for too much conversation.

When we first got on the boat we were given a welcome cocktail and shown to our room. After that we were given a 6 course lunch!! It was fantastic and a great change from the bread rolls and nuts we are used to eating for lunch. After lunch we went to an small island and were able to hike to the top of it for great views of the bay. Then we went to a small fishing villiage which was very interesting (even though we were hasseled to buy shells from the local kids). That evening we had a really nice Seafood and meat BBQ which was again amazing!

The next day we went kayaking with only one other couple and had another 6 course lunch. The kayaking was def worth doing and we were surprised so few people did it. That evening we had another BBQ dinner. The following morning we went to a massive cave with four chambers. We then had a really nice brunch before we landed back in Halong City and took a minivan back to Hanoi.

From all of the travelling we have finally worn ourselves out and both of us had cold in Halong Bay so decided to take it easy in Hanoi. We really did not do too much sightseeing and mostly just caught up on sleep. We had a major stress getting Chinese Visa which consisted of several very rushed motorbike rides through the city trying to collect the information they needed. It was extremely stressful but we did get it in the end. While here we decided to go to the movies and watch Batman which was good fun--we even got popcorn!! We also had a really fun dinner at a little hole in the wall restaurant what served beer right out of the keg/barrel.

Tonight we are heading to Sapa and are booking on a trek to climb Fansipan which is the highest point in SE Asia at about 9,000 feet (I think).

---