Halong Bay, Vietnam

Arrival: 02/21/09 1:00am

Departure: 02/23/09 at 9:00pm

Sight Seeing: Halong Bay, Cat Ba

People: Friendly

Food: The food was complementary with our tour and was repetitive. You can only have so much rice, boiled cabbage, and squid in one weekend.

Accommodations: First night on the Boat (sweet), second night somewhere on Cat Ba.

Pictures: Pictures of Vietnam

Summary: An absolute must see! With over 3,000 islands towering in the turquoise water, you get the eerie feeling that they really once were dragons.

Details: After a five hour bus ride to the Halong Bay, we boarded our boat properly named, Imperial Junk. Surprisingly, it was quite nice and we even had a private room with toiled and shower! We cruised around the bay, impressed by the countless islands that were slowly revealed through the fog and rain. Cave exploring was the first stop on the agenda. Now, Adam and I are no strangers to caves and what a tourist trap they can be (Side note: we biked an additional 10 miles up hill in Ireland to see the amazing Aleway Caves, which turned a bigger crowd for their potato bar than the unimpressive caves). However, the caves in Halong Bay were very impressive, minus the neon lights used to illuminate the stalagmites and stalagtights Next stop, kayaking. The calm waters made kayaking around the islands fun and relaxing (I can say that because Adam was doing all the work). That night we enjoyed dinner on the boat amongst our other tour group members followed by karaoke that we listened to from the comfort of our cabin. That night, we were rocked fast asleep by the calm waves of the bay. The next day we stayed on Cat Ba which had a beautiful walkway along the limestone mountain with staggering views of the beach and other islands. The next day we were ready to head back and ditch the tour food.