I've booked a tour to Halong bay as it is the only way that you can get to tour the bay via boat and spend a night out in the bay. The bus comes to the hotel just after 8am to pick me and a girl called Kim from Liverpool up and drive us to the bay. I have paid 40 Dollars for travel to the bay, 3 meals a day, the boat tour and a night on the boat, kayaking, trekking in Cat Ba Island on the bay, a night staying on the Island and the boat back to coast and then a bus back to Hanoi. All in all it's 3 days and 2 nights and coming in at less than £30, it's the cheapest option available (mid- 50 Dollars and top 95 Dollars), so I'm slightly worried at the quality. Apparently the lady at reception from whom I booked it all, said that out of every ten people only 3 are happy and about 7 complain, I push on anyway as it can't be that bad.
We get to Ha Long bay and are left for about 30 mins doing nothing as everyone else around us gets on boats, is this a sign of things to come? Our leader then comes along and puts us on a boat, which is actually very nice and then we set off. There are only about 16 people on the boat in total and we have a good sized lunch before touring around the Islands and visiting one of the caves. In the evening the boats drops anchor along with
about 40 others in an area sheltered by Islands on 3 sides, which I am told is due to safety if there is a storm in the night. A couple of weeks ago there was a typhoon that hit and the resulting storm overturned a boat and several crew and tourists died, so I'm glad for the shelter. Everyone is in bed by 11pm, but I stay up a bit later and end up talking to the tour operator and some of the crew and then they bring out a fish stew which they just cooked and we all tuck in to a midnight snack. The stars out here are nice and falling asleep on a boat in such beautiful surroundings is definitely an experience.
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