Last day cruising HaLong Bay

Well I wanted to die today.  5 shots of tequila might have been too much, I was pretty hungover.  We had to be downstairs for the van to pick us up at 6 and we went to bed around 2 or so.

The weather also was not so great: a bit cold and raining.  The first stop on the ship was to kayak and the second stop was for swimming.  The waters we’ve passed have been so dirty and with the cold, no one went swimming.  A few people kayaked and saw monkeys, but they got rained on. I stayed on the boat with a headache and nausea, but I don’t feel like I missed anything haha

Boats at the port

We had lunch on the boat and then went to “monkey island”.  I think they call it this because we climbed like monkeys haha.  I didn’t see any other monkeys.  The hike up was crazy and as typical fashion here, no one mentioned how difficult the hike (more like climb) was going to be.  I thought I was going to be ill, but forced myself to climb anyways.  The views from the top were beautiful.

Pierre

Lunch

Lunch on the boat. I don’t think I want to see the kitchen haha 

After the hike we went back to Cat Bay and waited for the bus to Hanoi.  Things don’t seem to run on time here and the bus was over an hour late. Many of our companions were worried about missing their connecting flights or buses.  I think everyone made it, but we were cutting it close.

The night before, Ami and I booked the last available train from Hanoi to Sapa Valley, departing at 10pm.  We went back to our last hostel, Nexy, showered, grabbed food and headed to the train station.  Apparently, we booked the wrong departing station and had to head 30 minutes outside the
city.  Our GRAB’s kept cancelling and we were stressed about making it. When we pulled up to the station, we were in the middle of nowhere and def the only non-Vietnamese.  Fortunately, everyone told us what to do.

They still flagged down the trains with lanterns, so crazy.  We shared a cabin with a mom and her son and both passed out the entire trip.

Kid eating soup for dinner