The bus to Halong seemed to go pretty fast, we had a half way stop for about half an hour to use the bathroom and get some snacks. I still didn’t fancy eating meat so i just got some crisps; always getting confused on the flavour, think i ended up with seaweed that time. They were actually pretty good. We jumped on another bus where i was in and out of sleep, sat next to a girl from Darwin but i never managed to get her full name. The tour guides put about 14 of us on a small boat to take us to the big one, once we were on we had a pretty decent lunch but with alot of sea food; i was still too scared to try anything with meat as id heard from lots of travellers they had gotten food poisoning in Vietnam so i stuck with the rice and veg. After lunch we chose our rooms, i stayed with the girl id met on the bus as she was the only person id properly spoken to so far. We had a set itinerary for the two days which seemed to swap over so we got freshened up and set sail through the beautiful limestone rocks which counted to about 1600 islands.
Everyone on the booze cruise was great company, mainly Americans and two girls from London. We made our way to a smaller boat to explore the light and dark caves, they were beautiful to walk around and were surprisingly big, the first cave led out to a beautiful view of the bay and the stroll down to the boat seemed about 1000 steps in that heat! We spent about an hour there before heading over to a beach area where people were playing football and swimming in the water, the water looked slightly polluted from the boats dropping off and picking up tourists but i had a swim anyway.
We headed back to the boat after another couple of hours just chilling and chatting to get ready for dinner and a few hours of free booze – which actually meant 3 hours of warm free beer and vodka. The dinner was quite similar to the lunch we had so i was pretty bored of rice and soy sauce at this point, i was more excited to start drinking as everyone on the tour was studying something pretty great at uni or had just graduated and i felt i didnt really have much to bring to the conversation in the academic aspect but it was safe to say i learnt alot. We played drinking games as the sun set over the rocks and partied inside the cabin after the sun had set and from what i remember drinking far to many tequila shots! We put the speaker up top and partied away until around 4am, all the Vietnamese staff had passed out in the cabin at this point.
The next morning we all showered and met back up in the cabin for breakfast, i gelled really well with the American girl i had met who was a right laugh to be around. We set off pretty quickly to go kayaking through a cave of bats ending up in what felt like a secret lake surrounded by the huge rocks, it was my first time kayaking so i was excited to do so. There were monkeys jumping from rock to rock with babies attached to their stomachs, it was a pretty cool experience to say the least. When we had finished the kayak we went back to the boat where some people left for castaways, another thing i regret not doing!
The rest of us had a cooking class booked but something about the alcohol the night prior and the rockiness of the kayaking made me feel slightly sick so i sat up top and enjoyed the view and took in what was around me while sailing back to the docks. The sun was stupidly hot but made the scenery look perfect, i wish i had learnt how to make the Vietnamese spring rolls i had loved so much but a hungover me and all the smells didn’t work out so great. When we got back to the docks we all jumped on a bus where 4 hours later we would be back in Hanoi. We said our goodbyes before i jumped off and headed back to the hostel where i had booked my next bus, the women working let me use the hostel shower and get ready before setting off to my next adventure in Hue.
Jez's travels 