We had been warned by many people about the Halong Bay trips and how people did not get the trip they thought they signed up for. We did quite a bit of research and settled for a company called Columbus Travel and our trip exceeded all of our expectations! We booked with our friends Wes and Amanda from Winnipeg who we had spent some time with up the coast. For three days the tour cost $66 (about 35 quid) including 2 nights accommodation - one night was on the boat, another on Cat Ba island, all the food, and a day of kayaking. Not bad.
To start, we took the bus to Halong City from Hanoi and boarded the beautiful Santa Maria (seen in background with sails up). In a sea of boats at the port, the Santa Maria looked like the nicest with an amazing upper deck with some very comfy loungers to relax on. A couple of hours through the beautiful islands landed us here, at Song Sot Cave. The cave itself was huge and tastefully lit up. Some great formations, but the view from the entrance out to the bay was spectacular. Our junk looked great with the sails up.
The boat anchored just behind the islands pictured and we jumped off the top deck of the boat for a swim - avoiding the huge jellyfish. A fun night on the boat with the group of 15 and our guide Ang who sang some traditional Vietnamese songs before inviting us to sing some of our traditional songs. Now I can't think of any traditional Canadian songs, so the Canucks went with Spirit of the West's - Home For A Rest!! We had music accompaniment with the iPod. As always, Michelle is never one to shy away from singing, so got into the spirit of things with a couple of solos that everyone loved. Plenty of Halida beers, Vang DaLat (Vietnamese red wine) and watching the stars from the upper deck finished a good day and fun night. *Stub
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