After Hué, as I said to Hanoi on a sleeper bus. We spent a night. As Hanoi was still dead following the Tet festival, we decided to head out of Hanoi and on a tour of Halong Bay - I will come back to Hanoi in the next post.
After a bit of research we undertook a 3 day & 32 night tour of Halong bay. 1 night on a boat and 1 night on the Island. As it came to pass, the order was reversed. We spent the first night on the Island and the 2nd night on the boat.
Over the 3 days we met Raph & Steph, Albane from France, Gabriel & Fabiene from Argentina, 2 Australians - unfortunately I cannot remember their names.
The first day was perfect weather. Blue sea & sky - see the Halong Bay video post. We cruised around the rocks, visited an island and visited a cave. In the evening, we were dropped off at the Capa Island for our night stay.
The following day was the opposite. Grey sea & sky. We trekked through the national park. We are still not sure if we were in the national parK. The day was not that packed with activity. We waited most of the afternoon for the bus back to the boat.We were back at the boat at 4pm for if we wanted some kayaking. A bit of trouble with the loading and unloading of the passengers and we did not leave the moors until night fell. So for those who wanted it was kayaking by moonlight. If the moon could break thought the clouds.
The third day on the boat. A further cruise around the bay and the visit to the floating village. it was a village, it had a floating bank and market!!!! And back to the coast for lunch and our return to Hanoi.
Over all the trip was a success. We were happy that we did the 3 day rather than 2 day trip. I had fun - the joy may not come accross in the post but hey. Great to have met Albane, Gabriel and Fabiene, the Australians, Raph & Steph. The organisation by the company was not the best.
