Day 51: Ha Long Bay Back to Hanoi to Hoi An

-The next morning we left for another long boat ride back to Ha Long City port. It really is incredible to look at all the rock formations in the bay.. There were two Dutch guys on the boat and there was a rumor going around that they had mistakenly joined the party boat and had wanted to study the geology of the bay. Turns out they knew it was the party boat and had just studied the bay in a geology class. They tried briefly to explain it but in broken English it was no easy feat.

-Once back in the bay, and after our lunch at 10:30am, we started the four-hour bus ride back to Hanoi. One of the guys on the bus was so hungover that we had to pull over suddenly so he could be sick. The poor guy was deathly pale when he got back on the bus, to an applause from everyone else.

-We didn’t even have time to shower when we got back because we were straight off to the bus station for our 18-hour sleeper bus to Hoi An. Luckily the bus was set up a little like mini bunk beds where you could lay down. Unluckily they were designed for small Asians so we didn’t fit too well. It was bumpy ride full of rude bus staff and random stops in the night but it could have been much worse.

Day 50: Ha Long Bay

-After a surprisingly nice breakfast of toast and eggs, the day was spent relaxing and having fun. Marco went out with some Canadian guys to watch some wakeboarding while I read my book. After lunch we both went tubing. It was a super weird three person tube where you actually sit like your lounging in a beach chair. I managed to stay on despite the crazy fast speed but my arms were dead afterwards.

-We both had a try at rock climbing. Marco did really well and got super high up there, I on the other hand made it about 2 meters off of the ground before stopping. My arms were tired from tubing!

Later on it started to pour with rain so a bunch of us decided to swim out to the pontoon. I wish I could have taken a picture because it was so surreal being in a torrential down pour in the middle of Ha Long Bay. The rain was pretty cold so once you finally jumped in it felt like jumping into a warm bath.

-Later that night another group arrived so we all were acquainted through drinking games, naturally. 

Day 49: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

-Marco and I woke up early before heading out for our tour to Ha Long Bay. There was a four-hour drive until we arrived at the harbor. Once there we took a long leisurely boat ride through the bay. We were on the booze cruise tour of Ha Long bay so were already playing drinking games at 2pm in the afternoon. It was really fun getting to know everyone from all over the world.

Some views of Ha Long Bay:

-We learnt some interesting things on the way to the beach. For one Ha Long Bay is one of the natural wonders of the world. It also was used in James Bond’s The Man with the Golden Gun. However, everyone associates the island in Phuket with that movie. Apparently the director wanted to pay a bunch of money to blow up one of the islands in Ha Long Bay but the locals were like ‘no way’ and he moved over to Phuket. Speaking of the locals, they had a strange birthing tradition. When the women go into labor they are left to birth the child alone in a boat with a little food and supplies. Then they have to survive for several months with the newborn before coming back to the village. The tradition is seldom practiced nowadays but its crazy to think people used to do that!

-We arrived at Castaway Island in the middle of the bay. It was really beautiful with just a few huts for housing. There were no pillows or blankets, just mattresses and mosquito nets. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, relaxing, and reading until the party started later that night.

Sleeping in the yurt: