Halong Bay, what can I say?!

This place is incredible. I don't think I've ever seen anything so weird and wonderful as this bay full of almost 2000 huge rock islands. We woke up early and were meant to be picked up from the hostel but after half and hour of waiting the reception received a phone call to say we needed to meet them on a street corner, lucky one of the staff took us there. The journey there was long but the time seemed to go quickly. We boarded a small boat which took us to our larger boat that we would be staying on. We sat down as a group to our first prepared meal together before checking into our cabins. Once settled we headed up on the top deck to enjoy the boat ride through the bay and it was breath taking. My phone camera gallery will prove how amazing I found it! Every few metres a new mountain would just appear and the horizon view would change all over again. Our first stop was a large cave inside one of the mountains and I'm pretty sure it is the largest cave I have ever been to. After a walk around the caves it was back on the boat where we headed to an island that has a beach at the base. Wow this place was packed with tourists! I'm pretty sure the beach is man made as well so that ruined it a little bit. We decided to climb to the top of the mountain which was a stepped path all the way up. Hard, but worth it for the views we were greated with at the top. The sun was beginning to set as well so even though it was a gloomy day it was still a spectacular sight. We braved the freezing cold water and had a lovely refreshing swim in the sea before heading back on board the boat once more. We drove the short distance to a small cove where we moored and spent the night. It was peaceful with only a handful of other boats floating near by. After dinner we had free time and some people tried squid fishing. I was up for having a go until someone caught a squid and we found out it couldn't be returned to the sea and it also wouldn't be eaten and we saw it just pass away in a bucket. Fishing for sport is just as bad as hunting foxes or poaching animals in Africa in my opinion so as you can imagine we didn't take part. Instead we headed up on deck to the back of the boat where they have a wide flat platform that goes to the edge with no railing. We lay on the platform just gazing up at the stars for well over an hour and I don't think I've ever felt more happy or content by something so simple.Read more