Alison: Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and was our next destination. It is a collection of over 3000 islands located just off the north east coast of Vietnam and it is a must see for visitors to the country. The islands vary greatly in size and most of them are more just like rocks/mountains sticking up out of the sea. There was only one island (Cat Ba Island), which we knew of, to actually be inhabited. There are many different tours you can do to see Halong Bay and these range from a simple one day tour, to staying 3 nights and doing a range of activities. We decided to go for something in between. We booked a tour via our hotel in Ninh Binh. It involved 2 days of sight seeing around the bay, kayaking, all food, and an overnight stay on a boat (known as a junk) in the bay. We had a very early start on the day of the tour because we first had to get a bus up to Hanoi which took about an hour and a half. Once in Hanoi we joined with 13 other people and headed off an another 3 hour bus journey to Halong Bay. When we finally got there we went to see our junk. We had heard some horrific things about the cheaper tours and we were concerned we would be over run with rats on there but it was actually quite nice. We had our own little room and bathroom and though the boat was a
little shabby, it wasn't terrible. The people were nice as well. We spent quite a lot of time with an Aussie mother and daughter who gave us lots of advice for our trip there. Another memorable twosome were a couple of Scouse lads who certainly livened the boat up! Halong Bay is a very beautiful place to visit. When we first set off from the harbour we were a bit concerned about the time of year we were visiting....it was freezing and the mist was very thick so we couldn't actually see the islands. As we got further from the coast, however, the mist cleared and we could see the bay in all its glory. Though there were many other boats around, the noise level was low and it was very peaceful cruising amongst the mountains. Despite the cold, we spent a lot of time out on deck soaking up the atmosphere. One of the Scouse lads was even diving in to the freezing water! Nigel said he was going to but he had forgotten his swimming trunks
;-)

Nigel: Included in the tour were two group activities, (visiting a cave and kayaking) which would be carried out on our full day on the boat. The cave that we were to go in is reported to be the largest in Asia and has been fitted out with many different lights. The view from the top of the cave where you enter was spectacular as it overlooked all the other boats approaching as well as several protruding mountains. The cave was as reported very big and long in length, but Alison and I did get around it quicker than the others as it was our 5th cave we had been in.
Once everyone had returned to the boat we sailed for about 10 minutes to where we would take part in the kayaking. Both of us had kayaked before but it was a while ago, so we thought we would be a little rusty. We were one of the last to set off and it's lucky we were. We started off and we must of be all of about 1 metre away when we crashed into one of the boats that was selling food. Not a good start. We then carried on to try and get near where the others were,
but this didn't go as planned either. We paddled on opposite sides from each other but we still ended up going around in circles, which then resulted in arguing, which then meant neither of us
paddled, so for a few minutes we just drifted in the sea in silence. After Alison finally realised that I was right, the rest of the journey went smoothly (well until we scraped the bottom of the boat on the rocks). I managed to take a few pictures whilst in the kayak, which turned out good. We were out on the water for only around 35 minutes but we still got very wet.

In the evening we got attached to another boat for some reason. About 9pm the other boat decided to blast load music out, whilst we just looked at them. After a while and not to be out done one of the passengers asked for the music to be put on, so we could have a blast off with them. We felt sorry for the people that had gone to bed and we thought our chance of an early night was gone. We stayed up for a bit and played cards whilst having a few drinks but we hit the sack before things got too messy.