Jungle trekking and monkeying around

What a jam-packed day! We started our day bright and early by going on a small rowing boat into a beautiful cove through a passageway that had been carved through the mountain. Inside the cove we saw monkeys scrambling all over the cliffs and water front hoping for some food to be thrown from the tourists. After returning to our boat we set sail again and enjoyed another amazing boat ride through Halong Bay to reach Cat Ba island where we are staying for the night. The wonder of how these mountains and rocks were formed and the feeling of how small you are in comparison will never go away. At the point of arrival disaster happened! I slipped down the stairs from the roof of the boat and in stopping myself falling I had to let go of my water bottle and sure enough it went in the sea, our amazing £35 filtering water bottle! Luckily it float and one of the crew managed to hook the karabiner with a fishing line and pull it to safety! Disaster diverted. We had a short try to the national park on the island where we began a 2 hour hike through the jungle. It was very changing and in parts so steep and rocky to climb but we pushed through the sweat and red faces to make it to the top and the view we were rewarded with made it so worth while. It's so unusual to see a view of the jungle where not a single man made object can be seen, but we found it and just wow. After some well needed lunch we checked into our hotel and with half the group headed to monkey island. This involved a scenic boat ride through the floating villages which in itself was incredible to see. So many floating houses have dogs which I find slightly cruel! We reached the island and the beach was heavenly. White sand and blue waters and to top it off monkeys as well! It was slightly sad because there was lots of washed up coral on the sand and you just hope that it hasn't died from the now every growing amount of tourists here. A highlight of the island was seeing a monkey make off with someone's fanta and within seconds working out how to drink from it and sitting smugly in a tree drinking away. We enjoyed swimming, walking up to a small view point and watching the monkeys before returning to the boot. We saw a group of children approach a baby Monkey who was on a hammock and could tell it wasn't going to end well. A girl, roughly 12, sat on the hammock and tried to either feed or touch the baby and then before you knew it the mother Monkey came charging in and jumped up and grabbed her top by the neck before clawing and trying to bite her knee. We're not sure if she was bitten but it was scary and sad to think her parents hadn't warned their children that these are wild animals and we are in their space. After the boat ride back we had dinner and had a scroll round the harbour in the evening. A pretty good last day before heading back to Hanoi tomorrow.Read more