Ha Long Bay

Asia
October 14th 2010

Published: October 14th 2010

Ha Long Bay is an incredible place, the pictures don't do it justice the scenery is stunning, islands every where and virtually all of them uninhabited, the only downside is that there are millions of tourists and junk boats, so the water around the harbour is farely polluted. I paid 90 US Dollars for a 3 day 2 night tour. The tour consisted of a night on a junk boat and another night on monkey island and all food included. So bus picked us up at 8am, quite a few from our hostel so I'd already meet a few of the folks on our boat. 16 people in total, older british couple, spanish couple, 5 canadians, 2 swedes 2 dutch girls and an aussie and another couple which I think were locals. We finally arrived at Ha Long Bay at about 1pm and jumped abroad and had lunch which consisted of rice, spring rolls, salad. I managed a bit, but knew this was going to be a diet trip for me. I bunked in with one of the canadians (Jordan) as it was 2 per room. Kayaking was the next port of call, we were supposed to be kayaking for about

Ha Long Bay

Junk Boat

30 minutes, but as we had no watches me and Sheldon (Canadian) went a bit to far lost track of time and the tour guide racing up to us telling us our time was up, we had a nice 45 minute stroll around some islands. We hit a cave which was over populated with tourists, we had to queue to walk up the steps and all the way round. The cave was nice, all the islands are made of limestone, so wear and tear has created a huge cave. We drifted out into the bay for a little dip in the sea before the sun went down. Plucked up the courage to jump off the top of the junk boat about 6 metres high, so it's not a little jump! Dinner time and yep it's rice, prawns, spring rolls and salad. Rest of the evening we sat about drinking and chatting, some getting pretty drunk.

2nd day we headed to Cat Ba Island at 8am (everything is done early) and we had a choice of a trek or a bicycle ride, as it was so hot and I was tired i opted for the bike to try and get

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay1

some wind. Nice little ride and we headed for a Hospital Cave, it was where the vietnamise hided during the war. Basically a bunker in the hills. We headed back and jumped onto a smaller boat that took us to a private beach on monkey island. It looked like paradise beach side huts. Another group joined us, so 32 people in total and i was sharing a hut with a japanese guy called Cagey. Went for bit of a sun bathe and swim and then the tour guide took us for a little trip across the island climbing over rocks and through a bit of jungle to visit some little monkeys. We were told not to show any teeth as this is a sign of an attack so was trying not to smile or laugh to much. Funny little chaps and they didn't look a thing like me! We headed back to our little resort and had a floating bar (tour guide swam out in a kayak and handed out drinks). The night ended with yet more drinks till about 2am, seem to be drinkng every night on a constant basis. I was hoping to lose weight on this trip,

Ha Long Bay

Monkey Island

but I may return with a beer belly.

Up early again next day, missed breakfast and needed the tour guide to wake us up. Headed back to the port and had lunch (same again) and now for an epic trip to Hue, which involved a 2 hour ride to Ha Long Bay, 4 hours to Hanoi (tonnes of traffic, hour late for my night bus to Hue, but they hung around for me which was good of them) then a 12 hour night bus to Hue.

Ha Long Bay is a must for anyone visiting Vietnam, stunning place to be, just a shame about the over tourism and it looks set to get worse.

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