The beauty of Halong Bay

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On my way up to Hanoi I had a 5 hour stop in Hue, where I hired a cylo to take me around the old town & see the citadel so I got to see everything that I wanted to. The night bus to Hanoi went smoothly & I found a really good hostel with friends for the night before booking myself on 2 tours for my last week of travelling. My first trip was to Halong Bay so I left early on Wednesday for a morning in the bus to Halong City & then out on the junk for lunch & a cruise out to the islands. That afternoon we saw the amazing cave, which is aptly named & really large, & then I went kayaking around the bay before it got dark & started to rain. The weather is cold up north, not the freezing temperatures that England is currently experiencing, but enough to need to wrap up with several layers, a fleece & a rain jacket.

Yesterday I transferred to another boat to see Monkey island & cycle through Cat Ba national park, which was stunning. In the evening I separated from my tour group to go out to an eco lodge that I had reserved outside of Cat Ba town & did some rock scrambling to get a view over the hills. The eco lodge was amazing & the tour has been luxurious compared to my previous travelling. All food has been included so I have eaten well including dressed crab, shrimps & cooked oyseters. The seafood has been the highlight of the food. I met some lovely people on the trip even though the group kept changing & I was able to use my German, which is quite rusty.

Now I have a couple of hours in Hanoi before getting a night train to Sapa. Fingers crossed for good weather as it might be even colder there than in Halong Bay.

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