Well we just arrived back from Ha Long Bay this afternoon. There was a bit of a mess around with our hotel but we are now safe and sound. We had so much fun at Ha Long Bay. We met some really nice people and are actually going to go have ice cream with them tongiht.
OUr first day started off the same as others...drive around in a bus until everyone is collected. We met some really nice couples from Melbourne and England (really funny england young couple). We drove for about 3 hours until we got to the boat and then floated away amongst scattered islands. So relaxing.
The whole trip was cloudy and foggy but it didn't take away the beauty of God's creation. We had an awesome lunch of seafood and vegies and of course rice! Yum! After lunch we went kyaking. We had to negotiate around the islands and big ships. I was so scared we'd get squashed. It felt amazing to be a little pea in a big ocean. The rest of the day consisted of floating, talking, eating and resting...and reading. :)
In the evening we hung out with our melbourne friends and taught them Danish Bastards. That night we stayed on the boat for the night. So lovely just rocking back and forth. There were masses of other tourists on other boats which was annoying during the day but looked so romantic at nigh with teh reflection on the water.
Many people left the next morning to go back to Hanoi but some of us stayed on for the next two days. This meant that the group got significantly smaller (Peter & Chantel from Holland, Peter from America and Linda from South Africa) All older and really great people. We went for an amazing hike on Catba Island, up a huge mountain and got up a huge sweat! Such an amazing sight at the top. I think it was 225m high mountain. Just incrediable.
The afternoon we travelled to the town of Catba, where we were met with a huge group of teenage vietnamese students on camp. There were masses of teenagers squeelling and firing off fireworks until late at night and then early in the morning. We vistied monkey island (as did many other tourists, which was dissapointing) saw some cute monkeys and some angry monkeys. One attacked poor Peter! haha. The beach was lovely and it was quite funny watching the kids get too clse to the monkeys and then screaming, run away when the monkeys got grumpy!
Our little group, and guide Ha, enjoyed hanging out over dinner and then Coby and I went with our new friend (Fred) for drinks. We scored 2 cocktails! YAY for us. He was such a nice guy, once again older (44yrs) but such good quality. So much more interesting than other tourists our age who quite freely talk about drugs and getting smashed! Fred went to bed at 10pm and Coby and I found some new friends from Switzerland to go Karokaying with. So funny...they were hallarious. We sang a song we didn't know and "hit me baby one more time"! hahaha We only lasted until 11pm and then headed home to bed!
This morning we woke early with the kids fireworks (5am). I struggled to sleep after and just waited to get up (now I'm freaking sleepy). We got the boat back to Ha Long bay and then the bus too home. We said goodbye to our friends and the beautiful country side and now back in the not so fun city.
I think I mostly enjoyed the hike in the forest and the floating on the boat enjoying God's creation. There were many house boat communities (with dogs everywhere!) so strange to see floatign houses...not boats really..floating houses.
Well we'd better go as we're meeting Peter and Chantel for yummy icecream! Love to you all from a content Amy.
