Day 105 Hanoi – Halong Bay

We had an early start and breakfast at our hotel, where we picked up at 8:30, where we sat on the tinniest seat on the world and taken to Halong Bay, for our two day one night trip on a boat. Our tour guides name was Viet who seemed friendly enough. We arrived in Halong Bay at about 12:30 and after a little while we boarded our Junk. The first tourist hot spot was a set of caves, with all the classic shapes of supposedly shaped animals. The cave was stunning but creepy too. Jumping back on our Junk, we were told we needed to board another Junk, as they didn’t have enough space on our first Junk. Dutifully doing as we were told we boarded another Junk, only to find out we’d be tricked into a hotel stay. I after some confrontation on a reasonable scale, we managed to get our one night on the boat. We met some nice and interesting people on the boat, one guy in particular, called Ian. This was probably due to our English common interest of moaning. The staff on the boat were really rude, unaccommodating and inhospitable, so all in all a brilliant first day!