Halong Bay

From Hanoi we did a 3 day trip to Halong Bay, which is recognized as a world heritage site with its 1969 islands and incredible scenery. As the Yangtze river cruise was still fresh in our mind, we expected the experience to be some kind of a mixture of smelly feet and a rubber boat. But it was amazing. I sound like a travel brochure but guys, this trip was pure superlatives all the way.

After a 4 hour bus ride to Halong City, we got on a cruise boat to Halong Bay with 8 other people. The weather was gorgeous! We ate well, saw a stalactite cave, went swimming and kayaking, we even had a chance to sing some vietnamese karaoke (maybe next time, need to work on the pronounciation still)! The first night we spent on the boat and the second night on Cat Ba island where we also did some trekking in one of Vietnam's national parks.

I still cannot believe that we got all this for 40 euros. All we needed to pay for ourselves were the drinks, otherwise it was all inclusive.

So far we have really enjoyed Vietnam. People are friendly, everything is cheap and - if you want to tickle your tastebuds, this is the perfect destination - the food is just incredible and you are likely to pay peanuts for your meal. I eat most of my Vietnamese meals smiling in silence, in a heavenly state of mind. By the way, we still have no clue why people told us that we would lose a lot of weight during this trip - seems like it's the other way around:)

After getting back to Hanoi, we discovered that the city is completely packed with tourists. And by 'packed' I mean that couples slept in one bed to give beds to other people and some people were sleeping in luggage rooms. This is due to the bad floods that are affecting the middle parts of the country - most tourists are waiting for better weather either in Hanoi or Saigon. Also some days ago some roads were blocked. Flooding is a common problem this time of year but the magnitude has been more serious than expected. However, tomorrow we'll try to get down south to Hoi An, the city of tailors. If it looks very bad, we try to get to Saigon as soon as possible.