Asean Halong Hotel Halong Bay

... Just had breakfast and we are getting pucked up at 11:30 to go out on a boat around Halong bay ...

... Monkey Island" and then over to Cat Ba Island, which is the only inhabited island in Halong Bay. When we got to Monkey Island it was quite disappointing. The guide waited until that moment to say that he hadn't seen a monkey on there for around 6 months, so we just spent the half hour we had on the island sat on the little beach. We were just about to leave when Tom (the guide) came running over to us all like a kid on Christmas Day, he'd seen a monkey. And sure enough there ...

We came to Hanoi with the expectation of not spending very much time in the city. We had a tour planned to head to Ha Long Bay and spend several nights on a Junk Boat. It took us all week to be able to organize a trip to Ha Long Bay because when we first arrived, so did Typhoon Katsana. It was a really cool experience (for me only) to be able to experience a typhoon though, because of my extreme interest of severe weather. It ...

... some Canadians and their parents, a chatty Thai woman and her mother, some ridiculously goodlooking Canadian girls and two cool Swedish girls (One of whom totally had swine flu! Well maybe just a smokers cough, fingers crossed!)
On arrival, we saw the hazy bay and a fleet of wooden junk boats. We were fed breakie, lunch and dinner everyday. Rice and squid, rice and veg, rice and ...

... stunning. The water is an emerald green & the karst cliffs are steep & vertical rising hundreds of feet & covered in lush jungle.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot the great welcome we got as we were seated to start our lunch – the guide told us that at 7.30pm last night a 3 level boat was blown over in a strong wind squall & 4 people drowned!!! We all ...

... as much of our necessaries as possible. I dashed in and somehow found toothbrushes and toothpaste and also a really goofy outfit consisting of brilliantly blue satin tap pants and a yellow top embroidered all over with colorful flowers. Cheap blue flip-flops completed the ensemble. Bill got into the act and purchased a red T-shirt decorated with a golden star, patterned after the Vietnamese flag, as well as some swim trunks, so we were ...

... running joke to everyone else on the boat. It sounds mean, I know, but seriously, it was hilarious.

We jumped on a smaller boat and headed off to our private beach for another swim, then BBQ lunch on the beach. It was so cool. Best birthday present ever (except from Biscuit - haha). When we got back to the main boat, we just lazed around in the afternoon reading, swimming, snoozing etc before dinner and another night of star gazing. Lots ...

... pretty obvious that the ghosts donated their earnings to the government stationed not so subtlety at a desk 10 feet away.

After the cave excursion, it was time for lunch. We had no idea what we were getting into. When I (Andrea) told our guide that I was a vegetarian, Jenn, trying to be helpful, assured him that she was easy and ate pretty much anything. In this case, anything turned out to be 8 courses of seafood, each more exotic than the ...

... All around nasty. Did I mention the cockroach? EW. Also.... when we arrived quite the drama unfolded because there were not enough beds for people. Heated discussions ensued (mosltly instigated my Luc...) and in the end a French lad that was traveling as a single got whisked off to another grotty location over top a karaoke bar. We head down the hill to the waterfront hotel where we thought we should have been staying for our dinner. Not nice....not overly disgusting... only a few ...

... I guess...

I was really looking forward to this part of the tour so I rushed downstairs to lock my camera away in our allocated cabin and it was at this moment that I realised the door was completely knackered because the lock had been kicked in.

I decided that there was no way I was leaving all our camera stuff, iPods ...