2 days 1 night booked, a deluxe tour of Halong Bay!

We are picked up from our hostel the following morning, for once on time, we trawled the busy streets of Hanoi filling the minibus with other people who would be sharing our experience, a diverse bunch, some Americans, Spanish, German, Russian, French and another Brit. We set off out of the city and 4 hours later we arrived at the harbour, wow we knew this place was popular but this was mass tourism at its worst! Hundreds of people and boats, we made our way through and boarded a small boat which was to take us to our home for the next couple of days.

We soon arrived and checked in, the rooms were spacious, clean and well decorated. We were called for dinner were there was a variety of dishes, all tasted very good and we got to know some of our travellers better. After lunch we again boarded the small boat and set off on our excursions for the day, we first visited the largest cave on the bay which was very impressive, next was the best part of the trip me and D got in a double kayak and were able to paddle our way around the bay, the limestone cliffs were amazing and floating around was quite surreal! After a quick stop at the most over crowded beach ever - the less said the better - we were back to the boat for a lesson in how to make your own spring rolls! We later had them as part of our tea that evening along with a host of other dishes! The day had been fantastic and the scenery was amazing.

That evening we tried our hand at squid fishing to no avail before the karaoke kicked in!! Some of our fellow passengers were very keen and it made for a very entertaining night - D even braved the mic with an American girl!! I was backing singer to most but reluctant to go solo!

After a fantastic nights sleep we were given a couple of hours to relax on the boat before we returned to he harbour and made he4 hour journey to Hanoi, we were dropped off a d reluctantly said goodbye to the people we had met, an amazing few days shared with good people surrounded by some of the most amazing scenery!