I'm back in Hanoi after my three days in gorgeous Halong Bay ... wow what a spectacular place ...After a bit of a bad start had the best three days. The woman who booked my tour obviously did not understand me as she put my drop off hotel as my pick up hotel so I nearly got left behind. It took the guide an hour, after a lot of phone calls, a taxi ride and help from a few people on the street, to find me and get me on the bus which made the departure time an hour late and 20 other people were waiting for me. I was thinking the worse after all the horror stories from other travellers about Halong Bay Tours and it didn't help that the guide got angry at me cos he thought I had changed hotels and not notified them. As if i would do that! And then once I got on the bus he made a speech to everyone about why I was late ... i was extremely embarrassed and crying behind my sunnies but by the time we got to the boat I was OH-KAY :))
The junk was just beautiful and very luxurious. We all got on at the Halong City harbour and cruised into Halong Bay while we had lunch. Halong Bay with the thousands of islands and rock formations is one of the most spectacular places I have ever been. I took a million photos... it is just breathtaking. We went to the Amazing Caves and they WERE amazing!! HUGE caverns ... three huge caverns. And the view from the caves into the Bay was gorgeous. After the caves we went for a kayak for about an hour. You feel insignificant against these huge rock formations. Then we had swims around the junk while the sun was setting. We were jumping off the three story junk ... was so much fun. Everyone was too scared to jump so I jumped first and the blokes thought I was "awesome" hehe
I had a room to myself and an ensuite on the junk on the bottom floor and then the second floor was more rooms and the dining room and then top floor was a huge sundeck. Gorgeous boat and only 3 months old. The crew and the guide, Thuan, were all fantastic. And the other people on the tour were all so nice ... have made some new friends :))
Day 2 a few of us got up early to watch the sunrise. It was so peaceful first thing in the morning. After brekky we got on a smaller boat and cruised to Cat Be island where we cycled for a couple of hours to a village. (Turns out there was no hiking but cycling ... that lady who sold the tour to me got it wrong again!!) oh well really enjoyed the cycling. After cycling we had more swims around the boat .. jumping off the boat and a couple of us did front flips and back flips ... and lots of belly flops. Was so much fun!
Then we cruised to the beach resort on Cat Be island where we stayed the second night. WOW you should see this place... right on the beach and the bungalows are built over the water (I was supposed to have a beach shack which was very basic but my guide upgraded me to a bungalow ... I think he felt sorry for me :)) We kayaked to another beach and relaxed and collected shells and swam and watched the sun go down. Then after a yummy bbq dinner back at the resort we had a bonfire on the beach. Great way to end the day.
Day 3 we cruised back through Halong Bay back to Halong City Harbour and bussed it back to Hanoi. The guide said there are over 3000 of these rock islands ... all different shapes, sizes but all spectacular. It is a very very special place and the perfect way to end my 3 weeks in Vietnam.
I had to laugh (otherwise I would cry) when we got back to Hanoi ... we all got dropped off at our Hotels but I got dropped off at the Hotel I was supposed to get picked up from AAAAGGGGGHHHHH ... So I had to walk 15 minutes in my thongs with my 17 kg backpack on my back through the busy streets of Hanoi to my correct drop off Hotel ... and what made it even more funny for me is that NOT ONE moto driver asked me if I wanted a ride!!! C R A Z Y !!!
So have spent a night at the Hanoi Elite... it's amazing what you get for a little bit more money ... this is the way to travel in Vietnam .... very nice Hotel and wonderful service and all the little extras are perfect for my last night in Hanoi. I fly to Laos at 4.30pm and it's check out at noon so have a few more hours of luxury. I checked in at 5pm and have not left the room since ... it's a little sanctuary!
See you all in Laos :)) very excited!!
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