Halong Bay, Vietnam, 5 - 7 July 2012

After attempts at bargaining and trying to wait out a deal to get on Jos boat, I missed the boat (bu-dum-tsh) and Jen and I had to get another one. We went for one called Dugong which had a similar itinerary as Jos and the hotels on Cat Ba island were close to each other. Jo got picked up first in a transit minibus, and we got picked up later in a standard big minibus by a bloke who smelt like he'd had a big night before. The bus was full of various nationalities but it was early, so not much chatting and a lot of dozing for 4 hours to Ha Long. We left the rain in Hanoi and arrived at the dock in blistering sunshine, a good omen for the trip. A little boat ferried us to our big boat, which looked quite good, although unlike all of the brochures and pictures of the trips in Hanoi, the boats didn't have their little oriental sails up, and they weren't dark coloured with lots of wood on show, but completely painted white. Inside was 3 levels. The bottom was the rooms and kitchen, above the bar, and above that the sun-deck. The rooms were nice, lots of teak effect on show with en suite, twin beds and air-con. Lunch was served shortly after we boarded, and the unusual mix of chips, rice, chicken with veg, fried bread and omelette was brought out. Strange mix, but very good. After some grub and a bit of chatting, we went to the Surprising Cave which is 3 interconnected caves formed in limestone with lots of stalamites and stalagtites. Our guide insisted on pointing out ubiquitous looking formations and making us guess what they looked like, us always getting them wrong, especially the big lucky turtle that looked like an unlucky looking pile of cow poo. We left and got back on the little boat that took us to a few floating houses (not quite big enough to justify as village) where we got in double kayaks and went for a paddle. I confess I got a little frustrated as Jen was behind me and swore she was in time with me, but no matter, we seemed to keep changing course suddenly and often. We had a good explore though and saw some cool little caves, one of which the floating houses decided would be a prime spot to plant their satellite dish! We made it back and got back on the boat and went across to a little man-made beach on a small island. The beach was packed with Chinese/Vietnamese tourists when we arrived, all in their far-too-tight-budgie-smugglers throwing sand at each other (bloody odd). The crowds soon departed and we had a lot of the beach to ourselves, so the lanky aussie in our group tried to hire a ball so we could play volleyball, but they wanted something like USD5 to hire it for 20 mins! We all got back on the big boat and I decided to go find out about the price of the beer while Jen showered. It was USD2 per can (which is a LOT over here), so we hailed a woman in a little paddle boat over. They all sell all sorts of bits and pieces including beer! We got her down to USD1.20 each and a load of bought a shedload from her. Jen and I with Adam the Surrey plumber, Joe the lanky aussie, Mike the jock and one of the girls sat on top deck relaxing as darkness descended drinking our smuggled beers (which were perfectly cold to boot). Dinner was similar fare to lunch, but with more dishes including squid, another chicken dish and fish. After dinner and chatting around the table I still hadn't showered, so Jen and I went to our room, she read for a bit while I cleaned myself up. The fatigue got to us though as we both passed out on our beds and woke the next morning. Breakfast was taken early then we were told to pack up and get ready to go to the island. The bloke was only expecting 6 people to go to Cat Ba though, so was surprised and useless dealing with the extra 10 people telling him they were supposed to be going too. In the end those who booked to go just jumped into the boat before he could argue. We got into a minibus and were taken to Cat Ba National Park for a hike up to a summit. This wasn't really presented as optional or difficult. Quite a few barely made it up the hour climb and everyone was saturated in sweat. Nice view from the top though, then on the very narrow descent I stopped as some people going up passed, and the two French girls from tubing in Vang Vieng recognised me from when I bandaged up one of their legs and helped them to shore! Small world! We got back down, back on the bus and to Cat Ba town. More crappy organisation meant that our hotel was already booked up, so we were put in the hotel across the road. The rooms were ok but it was nowhere near as nice of a hotel as where we were supposed to stay, but it was only one night. We were to be fed in the original hotel anyway, so was ok. We ate then had an hour til a bus took us to Monkey Island. Jen is petrified of monkeys, so she decided to go in search of the beach and meet up again in a couple of hours. We had to take another boat out through a huge floating village to Monkey Island, then you had the choice of relaxing in the sea and on the beach or walking up to the top of the island to try and see the monkeys. Mike and a couple of others went walking whilst the majority of us stayed messing around in the water. After 10 mins we saw a monkey come right up to the edge of the beach. A further 20 mins later the others got back from their walk to report they'd seen sweet F.A. They weren't disappointed though as two more came down towards the beach before we left. Got back to land and the hotel and I found Jen in the room. She hadn't found the beach, but had got a bit lost and made herself a bit ill from being out in the sun so long without drinking. She stayed in the cool with a big bottle of water while I went in search of Jos hotel. I found it; the poshest on the strip, and spoke to 2 people in their rooms but couldn't reach her, so I left her a note. Later transpired that they were at that moment having their own troubles with getting a room sorted so had no set room. I went back to the waterside and sat looking out at the harbour and the sunset drinking Tiger beer. After dinner Jen was feeling faint and off still so I went to meet Jo and the others at their hotel. We all went out and they had dinner, and we all swapped stories, then found a bar with some life and happy hour! After a couple of hours a load of the guys from my boat turned up too out of the suddenly pouring rain. At around 12.30 Jo and the others decided to call it a night as they had to be up very early the next day. I walked them all back, then walked back to the bar again for a couple more drinks with my boat! Next day the rain from the previous night was only an introduction to the full blown storm now raging, and only 5 of our boat made breakfast. We then left for the boat half an hour late because our guide was absolutely useless, huffing and puffing, standing around in the wrong hotel. We told him the missing people were in the other hotel (that HE had arranged), and he eventually went over there but did nothing again, blaming "our friends". We told him we had only met them the day previously and that we didn't know what room they were in and it was HIS job to rally the group! Vietnamese organisation; love it. No logic. No common sense. Just blame. We got dropped off at the ridiculously tiny wharf (big enough for only 3 boats yet the jetty was over 100m long so could have built loads of landing bays) and clambered over 2 boats to get onto a boat (but not ours) to take us to land. Our amazing guide then got in a huff AGAIN because a English girl who was on our Perfume Pagoda trip was told by one of his colleagues to follow him, but he had no idea of how to deal with this despite it not really making any difference to him. We chatted and ate lunch on the boat, then got in another bus to whisk us back to Hanoi. We arrived in Hanoi at 5ish, and sat down for some grub before the nightbus in one of our favourite places, Gecko, where we met up with Jo and Liv. Next stop Hoi An via Hue!