Ha Long Bay

The bus to Ha Long Bay picked us up at 8 in the morning to the 4 hour drive. We've heard many bad stories about the boat cruises there so we opted for the more expensive tour. What's the point in going there and not being able to enjoy it?!
The bay is a UNESCO World Heritage area and one of the most popular destinations in Vietnam. But it was still a surprise that there are currently more than 600 boats cruising the bay. 15 years ago there were just two!!! This must have quite the impact on the islands, the water was polluted with trash and you could often see an oily film. Besides that it was very scenic which we could see during an hour long kayak ride and a shirt swim.
The food usually consisted of 6 course meals with a definite focus on fish and seafood. It was a wise choice of Julia to go for the vegetarian option which was in parts better and definitely a lot more. We tried squid fishing at night but it's not the season so we were pretty unsuccessful. At night a thunderstorm raged over the sea and there was water coming into the boat. Luckily it didn't last too long but some cabins got flooded up to a certain extent. On the second day we went for a walk in a pretty cool and big cave system. Afterwards there was more food and then we headed back to the hostel and straight on the bus to Laos...Read more