Halong Bay

Hello hello,



How are things with you all? How's the good ol' UK at the moment? We are sheltering from the rainy season in an internet cafe filled with boys playing computer games.



So........ we left our hotel in Hanoi and after walking around a LOT with our rucksacks, finally ended up at the agency's office where we booked our Halong Bay tour. The guy was walking around collecting lots of different people, and when we realised this we said we'd meet him there. Three hours on a bus, and got to Halong City to get our boat. The boat itself was lovely, and we were met with a delicious lunch on board. The boat was wooden, and had a restaurant on it, with rooms underneath, and an open deck on top to sunbathe on the broken sun beds. We were doing three days and 2 nights, the first on Cat Ba island in a hotel, the 2nd on board the boat. Unfortunately the way the agency worked, we were constantly being transferred between boats and islands, so whenever we made friends with people we were shunted onto another boat without having a chance to say goodbye which was annoying.



Anyway the bay is filled with over 3,000 islands, that are very tall and very grey and silvery. The sun wasn't out when we were there, and it could often be quite misty, so it took on a kind of magical air. We stopped and saw 2 caves - the first was lit with multicoloured lights and very pretty, although reminiscent of Disney. This wasn't improved by our guide making up the stories as he went along! Still pretty cool though. We were convinced that one natural fountain in the cave was actually a hose pipe under the rock. The second cave was hardly lit and hardly filled with tourists, very natural and pretty.



Back on the boat and went to Cat Ba island. It started POURING down at this point, so unfortunately we could see nothing of the 28km drive through Cat Ba island to our hotel in Cat Ba town. The hotel was lovely - huge rooms and a TV that was getting no signal due to the storm and rubbish Vietnamese wiring! But if I could do cartwheels, I would've done. Loved staying there, although 2 hornets lost the right to live in our room after they flew back in after Haz released them through the window. She also fell off the bed onto her arse, which was funny for us, not so much for her...



Couldn't really go out that night as had little money and it was raining, and unfortunately it was raining the following day too. So we couldn't do the 3 hour trek up the top of the mountain for the view of Halong Bay. Our guide was still trying to get us to go up the mountain, but we refused as we wouldn't have seen anything! We did walk 2km to the beach to enjoy the sea in the rain, - which really cooled us down luckily. Cat Ba town was bigger than we expected and seemed to have most things, including beautiful and cheap pearls. Gorgeous!


Back on the boat in the afternoon, went kayaking in the evening (watching H and J in a kayak is hilarious, you should do it sometime) and chilled out on the boat that evening. The company, Love Planet, had overbooked the boat and so we offered (well H offered for us) to share the 3 of us in a 2 person room. Slightly close and hot, but we managed. Some people on the boat were absolutely lovely, and we just relaxed, watching the islands go by. The following day we sailed a bit more before heading back to Hanoi.

So back in Hanoi today before heading to Sapa this evening. The hotel we are staying in, while vastly better than our first one in Hanoi, is very annoying as we were woken up at FIVE FORTY-FIVE this morning by the staff, wanting to know when we were checking out, when we had already told them the night before! Absolutely ridiculous. They then knocked on our door at 7.20am wanting us to come down for breakfast. We were fuming. We made a bit of a stink this morning so they're letting us use their shower before the bus this evening. Hanoi is dirty, stinky and some people aren't very nice, so we're looking forward to going to Sapa. We've been threatened with wooden poles and metal sticks, and have been disturbed in our hotel, not really things to endear us to the place!

Saw Ho Chi Minh this morning - (Madame Tussaud's?!) He's preserved and looks very strange, and it's very weird how people are soooooooo reverential towards him. So many rules and regulations in the complex, was quite strange for us. Need to read up more about him!

So off to Sapa this evening, - tried uploading photographs but the computer crashed and so gave up! Will try another day when have more patience.

Lots of love from us all,
Alice xxxx