Hangovers in HaLong

Our second day on the bay of HaLong started with a rude awakening at silly o’clock in the morning… Well 7:30am but considering the night before we had it was far too early! Our tour guide gave us a knock up so we didn’t miss breakfast and I can assure you that I can’t type our response to that… It was a pretty descent breakfast as was all the meals we had during our tour so far but it was far from appreciated.
We had a full day out exploring in the kayak’s and aboard a smaller boat ahead and shortly after breakfast the smaller boat that was due to be our home for the day arrived, still feeling a little under par we hopped aboard hoping that the sea breeze would blow away the cobwebs… No sooner than we sat down it pissed down, despite the fact we were very cold and very wet it was beautiful to see the waves of rain swoop down across the bay and it didn’t last too long.
As the rain cleared so did our heads and soon we were chugging through HaLong bay sitting up on the roof of the boat chatting away and taking in the amazing scenery unfolding in front of us, we passed nearby a peal farm and a floating village en route to where the boat moored up and by the time we got there the sun was beating down hard.
The anchor went down and we all jumped into our kayaks and followed our guide through more caves into yet more amazing tidal lagoons, there were a lot less jellyfish knocking about looking for trouble in the lagoons so we all disembarked from our kayaks and went for a much needed refreshing dip in the cool emerald water, Georgie was still a little tense about the old jelly’s but our guide set her mind to rest and we spent an hour or so just splashing about with the others.
We kayaked around several more karsts and no matter how many we saw they just kept amazing us, by this time we had been out paddling for a few hours and it was time to head back to our boat for a BBQ lunch…
Yet another 5 courses of amazing grub including the best table centre I’ve ever seen, an old junker ship like the one we were staying on made completely from vegetables!! After lunch we had a splash about around the boat, dodging the jelly’s of course and jumping in off the side of the boat, even the crew got involved. We all had a few beers, pulled up the anchor and set off again to see more of the bay and from the roof of the boat with the sun shining it was beautiful, so hazy at times that it was hard to see where the sky ends and the sea starts but that just added to it all.
It was late afternoon by the time we headed back to the phoenix cruiser and by that time we were all pretty knackered so a little rest was in the shape of a free glass of vino and another lush sunset was in order, Georgie managed to squeeze in a nap as well… Of course. We didn’t really do much more than lounge about after dinner (again awesome!) because it had been such a long day, even the call of the karaoke didn’t get us off our asses and a few moonlight drinks while dangling our legs off the back of the boat later it was time to hit the hay…