Day 16: Bai Tu Long Boat - Halong Bay

The alarm woke us at 7am and we met Brenda and Kevin for breakfast. Our taxi picked us up at 8am where it circled Hanoi picking up 15 other foreigners. We then set off to Halong City approx 3hrs away.

Arriving at the port we took a small taxi boat to our Long Boat named the white dolphin upon which we realised another disaster that we had left the DSLR camera on the bus which was now on its way back to Hanoi! A quick call from our tour guide David to the bus ensured that it will be safely stored at the tours head office in the city in 3 days time when we return.

Absolutely gutted as this is the place we wanted the camera the most. Knowing that we still had our small digital camera made it a little easier until we turned on the camera and there was simply no life, not even the lens would retract let alone take a photo. How is this possible, we are devastated.

We have made an agreement with Kevin that we will borrow his memory card on the train and copy some of his photos. They were very kind to let us borrow the camera to take our own photos as well… Thanks guys.

We grabbed our room on the deluxe boat which is actually a lovely room. It has an awesome bathroom and air con etc. Only one slight problem in that our sliding doors to our balcony don’t open and don’t shut but there is an inch gap which is fine.

We had seafood lunch which was different and tasty then set off into the depths of the bay in amongst all the limestone karsts surrounding us. First stop was at tea tree island where we climbed 200 steps to the top and got a great view of the bay. However, on the taxi boat to the island we run out of gas and had to get rescued!
We then sailed over to the cave island but got there too late and it was closed so we were promised to go there in the morning instead. Its going well so far! Back on the white dolphin we changed asap to ensure we would be able to get on one of the 3 kayaks available for 20 people!
Kevin and Brenda also kayaked with us for an hour where we went exploring with no guide. This was awesome and definitely the highlight of the trip so far. We actually managed to get really far and discovered a few caves and wholes in the Karsts that we squeezed through. The sun was setting behind our boat as we returned, it is a real shame we could not catch this on camera.
Back on the boat we showered before our seafood dinner and complimentary wine due to the taxi boat running out of gas. We then took some beers to the roof and sat chatting with stars above and the silhouettes of karsts all around. At 9pm we went to the front of the boat to do some squid fishing with a piece of cane, some string and a hook. It was quite tough to tell the difference between all the fish and the squid but it was fun and Kris managed to catch 2 squid! That’s probably our breakfast for tomorrow!