Well the last few days have been fantastic!!!! Definitely the best of our adventure so far...

We are so grateful that we booked our tours through a reputable hostel, as despite paying more than average, we got more than our moneys worth and had a fantastic crowd! First off, Halong Bay:

This is a bay filled with somewhere between 2000 to 3000 small islands which stand out like jagged peaks. From Hanoi it was a 3 hour bus ride out to the east coast (note to self: do not watch the road as you will probably suffer a heart attack from the carelessness of road-users...there were many MANY close calls...!). Leaving at 8am from the hostel, there were about 30 of us together (mostly Aussies, Brits, Irish and Canadians). Atleast half of us had also pre-purchased several bottles of cheap local vodka (ie $4 NZ for 750ml)...

Arriving at the jetty was chaotic - there were heaps of tourist buses, and what was more worrying was the site of HUNDREDS of wooden boats all stacked up waiting for tourists to pile onboard...looking at them all, there is a clear difference between cheap boats and luxury ones (we heard that one of them sunk lastweek whilst out on the water...).

Onboard the sun was out, the tunes were playing and the beers were flowing. We sailed for a couple of hours soaking it all in and it was FANTASTIC!! On one island there was even a temple perched very high, sitting precarilously upon the cliff top (apparently constructed in honour of Ho Chi Minh, when he visited the bay ONCE). The boat then picked up some cayaks and we anchored in a sheltered spot. We spent approximately 2 hours paddling around the bays, in and out of small caves, and (occasionally) getting stuck amongst the coral (of which 2 cayaks capsized on top of angry sea urchins haha). The water was absolutely beautiful, and despite the air temperature being cool (about 20) the water was lovely. The great thing about our tour was the fact that we barely even saw any other boats - it felt as if we had all the bays to ourselves which made it all the more better...

The rest of the evening was spent polishing off the vodkas (a mean feat), eating copious amounts of yummy vietnamese cuisine, and soaking in the sunsets across the bays. A second boat had anchored beside us which had several ensuite cabins (although hardly anyone was in a rush to get to bed). The next morning the vast majority of people were seriously hangover (nicky) although lying on the deck and diving off the boat meant we weren't complaining (too much!)....

After another enormous meal we motored back to Halong city, then back in the bus and back to Hanoi by 5pm. About half of the tour group had stayed on for a second night and were going to be rock climbing/cayaking for the day, then staying on a island for the night...it was tough deciding not to stay, although with our next tour booked for Sapa we weren't complaining... See next blog.