Halong Bay

On the 26th we headed to Halong Bay in Vietnam. It's about 3 hours from Hanoi. We booked a 3 day tour which had us staying in a hotel on Cat Ba Island on the first night, and staying on a Junk Boat in the bay on the second night. Halong Bay is truly amazing. There are tons of limestone karsts and islands jutting up into the bay. Ufortunately, we had crappy weather the entire time we were there, so we really couldn't gain the full perspective of just how many islands there were in the bay. But the ones we could see were spectacular. We also explored an enormous cave inside of one of the islands. It was raining and socked in with fog, but we remained in good spirits. We had a good group of travellers to commiserate with, particularly a German couple that we ended up spending alot of time with. Our hotel was less than spectacular (read: sketchy), but as our booking agent told us "you pay for what you get for, you understand?" Our itinerary had us trekking up a mountain in the National Park on the island that 2nd day, so we decided we'd stick to it. The Germans joined us, and we hiked in the pouring rain. The visibility was extremely limited, but it was still a pretty amazing hike. After the hike we spent about an hour trying to find some dry pants to purchase, as it was cold and we had just soaked our only ones. I am now the proud owner of a $6 pair of hideous Adidas knock-off track pants.
The night on the boat was awesome. The food they provided throughout the trip was basic, but plentiful and pretty decent. We spent the night on the boat playing cards and drinking beer with our fellow travellers and the captain, who was lucky he didn't fall overboard by the end of the night. At one point, somebody tried to buy him a beer, and he comically replied "my company does not let me drink". He was a jolly fellow with a huge smile and a matching belly. We had a great time that night. The next morning we got up and kayaked around the bay. It was misty and foggy, but not raining, and the water was really warm. The views were incredible.