Dopo quattro mesi di viaggio, il giorno del primo tuffo nel mare e' finalmente arrivato; ed ovviamente non potevo che farlo in grande stile: al tramonto, lanciandomi dal tetto della barca di legno nella quale ho passato gli ultimi due giorni, circondato dal meraviglioso panorama di Halong Bay, uno dei posti piu' belli (e purtroppo anche piu' aff...

Paradise of a thousand Islands. The port at Halong bay is crammed full of boats you have to walk across boats to get to your boat. Once you get going it was nice to chill out and relax on the boats and take in the beautiful scenery as you can see by the photos. We went on a 3 day tour that covered touring the islands, staying on cat ba island, v...

After a six hour journey that consisted of 3 taxies, 3 buses and a ferry I was finally reunited with Jess and Gara on Cat Ba Island. This is a fairly large island that is off of the Tonkin Gulf. Most of the island is filled with small fishing communities and there is one commercial area off of the bay. I met them at the resort just outside the c...

I'm back with another update!!! Yep, they just keep coming. Remember, I have very few people to talk to so it's all about the blogs. :) I just returned from a 2 day/1 night trip to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island. Here's a quick history lesson on Ha Long Bay which is an UNESCO Heritage Site. There are over 3000 islands and it would take a week to ...

Day 118 - 19/06/08 Departed Hanoi at 8.30am for Ha Long Bay. First a three and half drive by mini-bus to Ha Long city. In Ha Long city I joined up with some of the other people on the tour, seem like an alright bunch. We had a bit of a wait in the sweltering heat at the harbor for the boat, typical Vietnamese style, everything is so laid back he...

Myself and Scott landed off the boat from Haiphong (me with a ropey stomach after some choppy seas) and were immediately met by a mob of hotel room "pushers". We chose one, and racked with imposed guilt for not staying in all their hotels we made our way across the street. We had a great view from the 5th floor but also had 88 steps each climb. ...

I joined the group in front of the hostel Sunday morning and boarded a minibus for a 3-hour drive to the port in Halong Bay. We then boarded our boat and set off. Halong Bay is an area just along the coast of Vietnam full of limestone islands in various sizes. It is incredibly beautiful, but this beauty means that it is also packed full of touri...

We got the Hoang Long bus from Hanoi to Haiphong and then a boat to Cat Ba island on Friday morning. Met an English guy called David on the bus who is living in China and teaching English. He just came to Vietnam for a holiday for a few days. We arrived around 4 and booked into a hotel on the seafront. We were on the 5th floor which had great vi...

After a dodgy nights lack of sleep we were delited to find we were the only 2 leaving the boat to stay on Cat Ba Island for the second night, about 30mins boat ride from the Junk. Luckily our guide was coming with us so we felt rather special being on our own private tour. Cat Ba Island was reministant of the Island of LOST and as we winded up t...

*************************************** *************************************** ******** Reports will be very short from here on - if I write something at all. I will update it with pictures from home. So everyone who will not have the pleaure going through millions of picture with me personally can reads his/her way through my trip. I will just...