We got up super early after only a few hours sleep to go on what we had heard some good things about.. the castaway island tour!!!!
We left the hostel in a group of about 34 people and got on a coach journey for 4 hours which took us to the boat dock at Halong City. We were introduced to our island rep, Yolo, who would be our guide for the trip.
We then boarded a party boat to take us around Halong Bay to Castaway island which would be home for the next 2 nights. On the boat Yolo announced the rules for the trip... No left hand drinking (if you get caught drinking in your right hand - you have to down your drink), you can't say the word ten and you can't say the word mine. If either of these two words were spoken, then you would have to do 10 press ups as punishment.
Following that, he announced the bar on the boat was open so we all headed to the bar and cracked on playing drinking games. We were on the boat for 4 hours which took us around Halong bay. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we didn't get a very good view.
As we got nearer to the Castaway island, the boat stopped in the middle of the sea so we could jump in. It was cold but we thought this might be the only time we get to jump off a boat. So we quickly got changed into our bikinis and made the leap.
5 minutes later, we arrived at castaway island. We all hopped off and got greeted by another group that had already been there a night. As we got onto the beach, we were made to do the limbo under a bamboo stick and went under a bridge of hands before being made to spin in a circle.
Welcome to Castaway Island...
We had a big welcome party and played big drinking games at the beach bar! Dinner was fantastic - we had chips with mayo for the first time since leaving England!!! So myself and Hannah were very happy! We played a massive group drinking game that evening before we turned the tables into a dance floor. There were even disco lights! It was very surreal - dancing on a little deserted island overlooking the beach and Halong bay (one of the natural wonders of the world).
That night we slept in little huts along the beach. You could hear the waves from your bed as we were a stones throw away from the little beach that adorned our island.