We booked a castaways trip to leave from Hanoi backpackers to Halong Bay in the early hours of Sunday morning. The bus journey took 4 hours to get to the ferry and when you the ferry you were served some typical Vietnamese food. After lunch you spend the afternoon talking to the rest of the group, kayaking around halong bay and it's beautiful islands before arriving at castaways private island and being greeted by the other group who were currently on the island. A scream of cheers and chants and climbing over several guys backs to be able to let on the island before dinner was served. Waking up early the next morning to the previous group leaving we were left with the island to ourselves, this meant we could do tubing - a massive rubber dingy for 4 people being pulled along by a speed boat, with the aim to throw you off into the ocean, which was surprising such a laugh! Then you had the opportunity to do wake boarding and some rock climbing. The rock climbing was very tough and was up the side of the tiny island, when you turned round and saw how far the ground was away from you made your legs shake just a tad! However having succeeded the rock climb (even if not all the way to the top) it was fun but hard work! Lunch was served and then the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and thinking of an initiation for the next group like we were given! The next day we left at 8am in the morning, sunbathing on the boat the whole way back and getting back to the hostel by about 5pm!
Halong Bay was absolutely beautiful and it was such a experience to be able to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world!