Halong Bay

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  Halong Bay, Vietnam
Sunday, August 17, 2008

We're in Halong Bay at the moment, managed to screw it up a bit and so it's cost a lot more money than we had anticipated but oh well, it's my birthday! We booked a hotel for two nights before we got here, and when we arrived we realised that it wasn't on the main island, Cat Ba Island, but on a little island connected to the mainland. We said to the manager that we wanted to go to Cat Ba Island and he said that we'd have to stay the night there because it takes so long to get there and back. So we decided to go to Cat Ba Island yesterday and just pay for two hotels because we had to get there. We had the most amazing boat ride, the sun was shining and the scenery is as though you've stepped into Jurassic Park. LOADS of photos. We arrived and took a motorbike for 30km to Cat Ba town where we found a hotel room with a sea view for $20. However, what we didn't realise at the time was that the hotel room was infested with ants, the air conditioning didn't work and there was unexplained water all over the floor that just came back when we wiped it away. Hmm... For dinner we went to a restaurant called Green Mango which was absolutely delicious (and rather expensive). Then back to bed as it was quite late.

Today our plan was to go kayaking in the bay and the man in the hotel rented us one of his for $8 and drove us over to the Harbour. We set out feeling positive, thinking we would find a nice beach and lounge there for the morning before coming back to get a bus and fast boat back to our hotel on Tuan Chau island. However, after a while we couldn't find any nice beaches and we didn't want to head out into open water for fear of drifting away. We went around a big rock and had dogs barking at us as we passed people's houses. I started to panic because it was getting really choppy and windy and I thought there was going to be a storm. We ultimately spent 45 minutes out of three hours in the boat and had to come back in and get a motorbike back to the hotel because I really wasn't enjoying myself.

Now we're about to catch a bus and boat back to Tuan Chau and hopefully relax for a bit before having dinner on our balcony with the most amazing view. A lovely end to my birthday.

Lots of love xxxx

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