The next day we visited the imperial city. Neither of us are big history buffs, so we really didn't know much about what we were looking at, but the gardens were pretty and there were some nice buildings. We've found that unless you pay for a guide, there really isn't much information available as you walk around. Probably the most part of the day was actually taken up walking around looking for an ATM, so by the time we finished we were shattered. Not to mention the temperatures were soaring, Alex spent the whole day walking with a parasol and I came up with a new style of hat to cover my face and neck.
We had planned on travelling up north after checking out, but my aunty and uncle coincidently were having a holiday in Hoi An, so it seemed crazy to not try meet up. We decided to meet half way in Danang, and just spend the day together at the beach. Me and Alex could then get the sleeping bus from there that evening, up to Halong Bay. It was so nice seeing them both, and we realised how much we missed just being able to have a proper conversation with people. Don't get us wrong, we have met some nice people here but there is always either the language barrier, or just the fact that you're never with people for very long before either they or us are moving on. Also we left our new shampoo on the beach! So gutted :(
The first part of the journey was 16hours on a sleeper bus up to Hanoi. From there we then had to get a lovely old local bus to Halong Bay. This should have taken just 3 hours but instead ending up taking about 4 after the bus broke down. Fun times. We got there eventually.
Surprisingly Halong Bay isn't very touristy, in terms of hotels and restaurants etc. Many of the trips people do to Halong bay set off from Hanoi, and generally people do a 'cruise' around the islands for a night or 2, therefore they sleep in the cabins. Apart from the boat tours there really isn't much else to do in Halong City. Our hotel arranged for a tour guide to come help us decide which trip to do. We desperately wanted to do a cruise for 2 nights but the prices were sooo expensive so we stuck with a day trip. We were picked up at around 7.30 and taken to the port where we then got on the boat to the first island, stopping at Heavens Cave. The amount of people crammed into this place was unbelievable. Boats were showing up every 5 minutes and the cave was just packed full.
These are just the amount of boats pulled up at the cave.
Back on the boat we had lunch and then made our next stop to do some kayaking around the edge of some of the islands.
On our boat we had a group of Essex lads. It was quite cringe to watch as they all had their Calvin Klein boxers showing under their trunks and obviously had to have their tops off almost all day to show off their tattoos and muscles. They pretty much kept themselves to themselves until we were all climbing out of the kayaks and one of the lads started on an American guy who was with his wife and teenage son. It was embarrasing to watch but it got worse when it was the Americans turn to get out and he ended up falling in the water and literally couldn't get out. All 7 lads started laughing at him shouting 'thats what you get you mug'. If it hadn't been for the guys been total idiots it would have been funny, but to say this guy was overweight would be kind ,so you really couldn't help feel sorry for him as his swam around in the water waiting for someone with a ladder to come help him out.
Finally we stopped at a small beach where most people went swimming but we had a sleeper bus arranged to take us to Sapa that night so we didn't fancy being all wet and salty for the journey. Instead we headed up the mountain and got some amazing photos of the bay.
It's a shame about the current condition of Halong Bay as it isn't like the pictures you see on the internet any more. There are so many huge industrial barges and ships that dock in the port which we presume is why the water looks so polluted and has a lot of rubbish floating around. Saying all of this though, it was still impressive none the less, and very beautiful. We couldn't come to Vietnam without seeing the bay, and we're glad we did. Definitely something to tick of the bucket list.
That evening we got the sleeper bus, 9 hours to Sapa. This time we couldn't pick our usual bus company that we knew was pretty comfortable, and so just let our hotel arrange it for us. Unfortunately the journey wasn't as good. The berths weren't long enough to even stretch our legs out in, never mind having room for our bags as well. Also we were told we would get in to Sapa at around 8 in the morning which we thought wasn't a bad time. Turns out we arrived at half 5 in the morning. It's now almost 12 and we're still sat in the hotel lobby waiting to check in. It's been a very very long night.
We're still smiling though... Just.
:)
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