Saturday 30 July 2011

Halong Bay

After arriving at the Hanoi airport we booked a hotel and some tours through the information counter the airport. We decided on a One night/ two day tour of Halong bay and a quick one day tour Sapa. When we arrived at the hotel we were taken aback by how friendly and helpful the people where! They let us leave our luggage with them while we went on all our overnight tours. This allowed us to move more freely with a simple day bag.

We headed off to Halong bay after a hearty, FREE breakfast! The tour company was galaxy cruise lines and we were told that the boat we were sailing on was only two months old! The tour cost us $119.00 each and included all the food while on board the boat. From Hanoi, it was a three hour drive to where we caught the boat and this included a half an hour stop at the local "by my shit" souvenir shop. I was tempted to by a set of bamboo plates that were glazed a bright blue, but given the space crunch in my pack... I left them behind! When we got on the boat we sat down immediately for a huge lunch! Every meal on the boat was about 8 courses! For me, this is where things went downhill fast. My rule about not eating anything that swims in it's own poop is not going to go over very well in these parts! They served every kind of seafood you can imagine, squid, huge shrimp, fishcakes, YUCK. And no! I did not taste it, I'm just not feeling that brave yet! Anyways, after lunch we went to visit a cave, went kayaking and had a nice swim in the hot water of the bay! Our time on the boat was very beautiful and we met some great people from all over! In the evening, we had a karaoke party. Now, these folks take karaoke seriously! I am sure they did not appreciate us butchering every song we attempted but it was good times for us! On the second day, our brand new boat broke down! Amanda was stranded for about a half an hour with shampoo in her hair! in the end, they tied us up to another boat and hauled us back to the port that way! Here are some photos from this adventure!











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Location:Vietnam

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