Halong Bay

I thought for a three day cruise, we might have access to wifi, but silly me.  What an incredible trip though!  The trip to do Halong Bay was not cheap.  It seems they really jack up the prices in Vietnam for tourists.

Breakfast bar at Nexy Hostel was amazing

Our tour included pick up from our hostel, a 2 hour drive to Halong Bay, one night on the boat (meals included), one night in a hotel on Cat Ba island and then drop off back at the hostel on day three.  It cost like $165usd.  *after speaking to some of our boat mates, it seems we could have negotiated this amount, because they only paid $135.  Oh well.

The bus ride was insane.  The guy (Long) threw us into the bus and when we would pick up other people, the van would just keep driving as Long would jump off into traffic.  The van driver got in an argument with another driver and while Long was talking to us about the trip, the driver opened the door and tried to throw an empty water bottle at the other car.  It was hilarious.

When we stopped at a rest area, I grabbed some interesting snacks (look at the flavor)

The boat was nice enough.  None of the drinks were included, not even water.

Dingy we took to the bigger boat

Cruising the water

View from our cabin

The beds were comfy!  We paid an extra $10 for "deluxe" package... maybe that's why they gave us 3 beds lol

Halong Bay

Bought a beer anyways lol 

We had lunch on the boat, then stopped at some caves and did a hike to a pretty view point.  Later we went canoeing, which was like a marathon trying to keep up with Long.

Ignore how nasty my feet look.  I cut my foot on some rocks, but still managed to not look terrible in this photo haha  Everyone on the boat was so sweet to me about it.  Although the boat operators did not seem to care or offer me any sort of first aid kits.  Glad this French (Pierre and Corrine) couple had stuff to help me!

Still smiling!

The cave where I cut my foot lol

After exploring, we went back to the boat and had dinner.  Then just hung out on the ship.  After dinner, there was "squid fishing" and was supposed to be karaoke, but the workers all just sat on the couch and watched soccer... i'm not sure what happened to karaoke.

Two Chilean girls, Ami and I smuggled some wine onto the ship and drank that on the top deck while watching our Italian friend, Gaetano, get really into the squid fishing.

Great, but exhausting day!