It seems that the top attraction here in Northern Vietnam is to visit Halong Bay. I decide to go on a 2 night, 3 day trip, along with 3 other girls from my hostel, Anouk, Nina and Kim. We head off in the morning on the bus from Hanoi to Halong Bay, it should take about 3 hours. 5 hours later we arrived after our bus breaking down, being stopped by the police and having to take public transport. We finally reach our boat, Poseidon and join the other people already on the boat to have a lovely lunch. The food over the next 3 days is certainly plentiful. We slowly head off into the bay where we get our first sighting of these strange islands in the water, it is just beautiful. The weather is a bit cloudy but it just adds to the place by giving it a moody atmospheric feel. In the afternoon we go kayaking then warm up back inside the boat.

The second day we get up early, after getting off our 5th boat and 1 bus we make it to the stunning Monkey Island where we are spending the night in beach side bungalows. We take some walks around the island, eat lots and generally enjoy being in this beautiful place.

On our final day we are so lucky as the sun finally appears. Its amazing the difference that just having some sun can make, the weather is now warm enough for us to stand outside on the ships deck as we make our way back to the mainland. On the way we stop off at Dragon Cave, a huge cave which inside has been decorated with lots of these bright different coloured lights. It's a little odd but it certainly adds something to make the caves more interesting!