Halong Bay

My faith is restored in Vietnam, just spent the best 3 days touring Halong Bay by junk, boat, kayak, bus and bicycle. had the good fortune of meeting a(nother) Canadian (they're everywhere!) at our guesthouse who recommended a Halong Bay tour to us which against LP advice we booked through our guesthouse. Arrived in Halong to the beginning of the monsoon... Not the best start when you can't see the water let alone the islands! Mist everywhere!!! Went down to the bay to tourist mayhem and it isn't even the busy season, the piers were like the city streets, junks everywhere, floating around each other, squeezing into impossibly small spaces, these guys would give Indian drivers a run for their money! So anyway we were left to wait beside a really posh junk obviously for posh git tourists with lots of cash and we were all saying how cool it would be if that was our boat... It was!!! Wow!! Walked inside, to a posh restaurant all set out with finery for our lunch. So far the quality of the tours have been relative to the food provided and this was no exception cos the food was excellent, and it just kept coming, all Vietnamese (except the crinkle chips) which of course impressed me :-) Was really dull and misty so it wasn't looking good so beer came to the rescue and we just sat around and chatted and checked out our cabins, A/C, private bathroom, swish swoo!! Dinner again amazing then cos they Vietnamese love getting up at dawn off to bed.
Next day woke to heaven, clear and sunny, the water amazing shades of jade and emerald and aquamarine, limestone karst outcrops towering above you and islands with mini paradise beaches, and after we switched to the smaller boat and went a bit further, no other boats, heaven!!!! Went cycling and walking on a mini jungle trek before stopping at a deserted beach for more lovely food. Also went jumping off the roof of the boat into the sea, cool. Were quite tired at this stage so the boat dropped us at Cat Ba Island for the night, where we checked into the plushest hotel we've stayed since we started travelling, sweet!! Dinner in their posh restaurant, think we all felt a bit grubby, then ran off into town for street beer, 10p a glass :-) mmm watery. Up the next day for a huge brekkie and then 4 hours boat and 4 hours bus back to Hanoi. All that, excluding drinks, for $80, not bad :-p Off to Hue tonight on an overnight train, hopefully this time I won't be a mossie feast.. Bug spray to the ready! Onwards!!!