We got picked up for our hotel at 8:10 by the mini bus to head to Ha long bay, our guide Lily was very friendly and gave us a long speech about Vietnam! The journey took us 4hours to arrive but we had a break at this random factory full of china on the way! On arrival we had to get on a small boat to take us out in to the bay so we could get on the luxury cruise! We then had more people join us so in totally there was 20 people on our tour.
As you arrive on the boat they staff greet you will a fresh glass of juice and a cold flannel, we then sat down for lunch. On our table we had a middle aged couple from holland who were both teachers they were great company and they guy had the funniest laugh I've ever heard! Lunch consisted of a lot of fish, it came out in courses by the 8th dish we were feeling pretty full, as eilidh doesn't like fish the staff made sure she didn't go hungry and brought her meat dishes! After lunch we went on a trip to the caves, they were very crowded but the detail inside was amazing. We was later told one area of the cave was very famous as it was shaped like a males genital part however for some reason we both missed it!! Next we headed to the kayaking area, this was lovely as so peaceful going around the bay. The water is so green but it's clear, the scenery was lovely to look at while chilling out in the kayaking catching some sun and hoping not to tip up haha!
After out kayaking trip we went back to the boat and watched the sunset before dinner. Again dinner was very filling even more courses were provided! Our teacher friends kept us entertained as he was a history teacher so taught us all about the Vietnam history and gave us tips for when we visit the tunnels in ho chi Minh. After dinner eilidh and I went up to the top deck and laid on the sun chairs drinking our cocktails watching the stars. It was extremely peaceful, all the other boats in the bay were far away so from our view it was so dark. I could of stayed on the sun chairs all night but luckily we didn't as 3am we were women up in our cabin by thunder and a huge down pour!
The next more sadly it was still raining we had breakfast then left our boat to join another cruise to take us to nam cat island. To transfer to the island we had to catch another boat, the way they did this was they lined up 4 boats in total and swapped all the passengers around with luggage to your correct boat! I felt sorry for the older passengers as it was a lot of jumping, anyone that knows me well would know how scared I was climbing across as I don't like boats!! Once everyone was on our new boat we headed to nam cat island and got to view more of the bay. As we arrived to nam cat you could see the water was even greener but clearer. The island consisted of a walk way that had a few bungalows out above the water then more bungalows on the actual island. We was allocated very luckily the luxury bungalow out above the water with fantastic views of the bay, we also got air con in our room BONUS!! Next up was another huge lunch before free time chilling on the man made beach. There was a little puppy running around the island that had 6 toes but was very cute, it was teething so kept stealing peoples flip flops to chew on! We went for a swim in the bay the water so warm however it left this slimy feel over your skin from the limestone.
The evening we had a buffet dinner and sat with a group of travellers sharing out stories of backpacking Asia. There was a huge cockroach/moth thing flying around the nose dived and hit the girl sitting next to me on the head and knocked its self out! We all jumped up screaming then a boy touched it to see if was alive and it shot up in the air again! We made a swift exit in case it came back!
That night before going to bed we could see lightening in the distance across the bay, I left the curtains open to watch it while falling asleep only to be woken up a couple of hours later by the loud thunder. We both got up and sat on the balcony trying to get picture of the lightening over the water but both failed! iPhones are too slow! The storm went on for a few hours but it was nice to listen to the rain hitting the water and the thunder bouncing of the cliffs making such a cracking noise.
The next morning it was time to head back to the luxury cruise to join a cooking class. Our guide showed us how to make spring rolls out of rice paper then we all had a go and making one! Eilidh's was good, mine went slightly wrong I think I filled it too much! Once we had all made ours they fried them and we had them with our lunch was again was huge!!!! We then headed back to the harbour and caught our bus to take us back to Hanoi for a couple more days.
We both loved our trip to Halong bay, it's such a beautiful stunning place. It's very peaceful to just guide along the bay in the boat watching the scenery go by, the water is such an amazing green colour. I will be coming back here again in the future!