The day of the Halong Bay Boat trip, was supposed to be picked up at 8am but wasn't till 8.30 we got on the bus, so was a good start. It was a very bumpy four hour journey to the harbour but as soon as we saw the huge limestone mountains (islets) that looked like they had erupted out the sea, we knew we was in for some jaw dropping scenery. We were ferried across to our "junk" on a smaller boat and greeted with green tea, then sat down for lunch before checking into our room. After lunch we were taken to do some kayaking which we were supposed to be doing all afternoon but only actually had 30 minutes out on the water,luckily we found a lady paddling around on a mobile off licence so managed to grab a few beers with Mario, a dutch guy, and Sara, from canada, whom we'd hooked up with from the boat trip. We was literally 3 minutes late back from kayaking and the boat was leaving already for our next episode in the itinerary which was a huge cave that had far to many tourist, we had to basically queue up to get in. We was instantly in the bad books with the tour guide for being late back from kayaking, so as impressive as the cave was, it was so ridiculously packed with tourist that it was hard to take everything in and we didn't get much info from the guides as we'd already pissed them off. The boat back from the cave was then too full and stopped by the police before it went back to our main boat, so as we were the bad apples, decided it only fair that we got off and wait for the next one. And they even wanted us to pay the bribe to the police for being over capacity.... cheecky b******s, we didn't have any money on us anyway so nothing was paid and finally got back to the boat where it was time for some dinner and free time. Somehow a small gathering formed in our room and we be joined by another traveller, Dan from Germany, and luckily we was visited by the secret boat lady who sails round all the boats docked up in the bay armed with alcohol and snacks that are cheaper than on the boat, so we stocked up on beers and food for the night and had a good drink till the early hours.
Next morning of the 28th and we're up at 7.30 for breakfast not feeling to sad, until breakfast is put in front of us and its hard cold toast and eggs, not what you want when you've apparently got to hike up the side of a mountain for the first part of the day. We leave the boat to stay on Cat Ba Island for the day and night, the biggest islet in the bay, and the itinerary looks good....mountain trekking and monkey island then free time. So with out even checking into the hotel we were taken straight to the mountain and led up to the peak by our tour guide. Mostly steps and dirt track and a few steep ladders, after about 25-30 minutes we make it to the top (220m above sea level) and the view was stunning, we were higher than most other mountains and had the perfect panoramic view. And to make it even better we could walk up a steel frame which stood another 30m higher for an even better view, if you didn't mind the rattle and the rust of the steel going up which looked like it'd be sitting there for a long time.
After checking into our hotel, which was well above expectations, we were told to meet in the lobby, where we would be driven then ferried over to monkey island. We didn't see any monkeys when we arrived but there was an arrow that had been chalked on a rock pointing up, so as we do, we followed it but it didn't take us to any monkeys, just another summit and some more lovely views of the island and other islets. Until we got back down and saw a Japanese man being chased along the beach by about five aggressive monkeys, which was hilarious, then realising that we had to pass by them also which wasn't so amusing and got attacked as well. But they were only small monkeys, the biggest one about up to your knee cap, but still pretty scary, they only wanted to snatch whatever food we had, if we had any!
Had some free time before dinner and got a flyer when we got off the boat from monkey island for a bar that we agreed to all go to after dinner. Dinner back at the hotel was very nice, a mixture of all different kinds of meats, fish, rice, noodles, just what was needed to line out stomachs for the night ahead. We hit the bar and after a beer, our Aussie friend suggests that we go four ways on a bottle of whiskey, which was a great idea at the time and we crawl out the bar around 1am a little merry.
Until the next morning when we have to check out the hotel at 7am and start the long journey off Cat Ba Island, back to the boat and the harbour and then the four hour bus trip back to Hanoi, all with a very bad hangover which made this journey not one to remember. We had paid well over the odds for this Halong Bay trip and hadn't done half the things they said we'd do on the itinerary we'd shown them, so demanded to our hotel that we get refunded some of the money because some others on the trip were actually paying half what we paid and did all the same things as us. We had one more night booked at the hotel, and been told by the owner that he'll sort something out the next morning before we leave for Laos. To make things even better, we'd found out from a guy on the trip that the hotel we're staying in wasn't actually our hotel we'd reserved but another one with the same name, and his one sounded a lot better. So in a way was pretty much looking forward to getting out of Vietnam by this point. We got refunded $50 so was happy with that and decided that this one bad experience wasn't going to put a downer on what had been an unbelievable 3 weeks I'm Vietnam. We were told earlier on in the trip that the more northern you get the more unfriendly the people get but didn't want to believe this because people were so nice down in the south and we wanted to find out for our selfs.... but we can safely say that it's defiantly true. Before our bus journey we grabbed some crab spring rolls which we'd tried earlier in the day and absolutly fell in love with, the best spring rolls we've tried so far, so we took some to take away to eat on the trip to Laos. 5pm and the start of the 20hr bus journey across the border and into Laos and Vang Veing. We've heard only good things about Laos so very optimistic about getting there!