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Category: Vietnam

Tags: halong travel blog, halongbay, halongbaycom, ha long trave make, halon gbay tour reviews, ninh binh, vietnam, trip, slideshow, tripwow, tripadvisor, photogra

Preview of Bshorts's blog at TravelPod. Read the full blog here: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bshorts/3/1214549820/tpod.html This blog preview was made by TravelPod using the TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow creator. Entry from: Halong, Vietnam Entry Title: "HalongBay" Entry: "For those of you who don't know Halong Bay is a Unesco World Heritage Site, comprising over a thousand small limestone islands rising from the smoothest sea imaginable. It's become a standard part of a trip to Vietnam for everyone and however commercial and crowded it can seem at times, it's still well worth the time. We spent a good bit of time shopping around to see what was on offer but in the end went with a mid-price package. The cruise of Halong was very good in the end, with only 4 out of an initial group of 10 staying for 2 nights, us two and a Swedish couple. Day 1 began with a 4 hour bus ride which was fine but dull as can be. Once on the boat we had some lunch (excellent seafood which continued throughout the trip) and sailed around a small part of the bay visiting the "Surprising/Amazing" Cave, a small island with views over the bay and and man-made beach, before anchoring for dinner. At this point everyone but me started jumping in to the sea frmo the boat. I'm just not ready for that. The rest of our group comprised 3 Irish lads, just out of college and very much in party mode. At least during the day they were but they all went to bed around 9! There was also an Aussie couple and a lone Japanese man in his 50s, who was a bit mad but good fun. On day 2 we all went kayaking, then they all left and we went with the Swedish couple to Catba Island and cycled to a small village. Our guide was excellent throughout and told us lots about village life, having grown up in a similar place himself. After that we had lunch where I had the dubious pleasure of trying pigs' ears....tough going, before more kayaking which was excellent. Later we had some swimming time where I'm proud to say I swam to the beach and back while out of my depth, maybe 30m each way!!! Nice. Reaching Catba town in the evening we had a great hotel room, bigger than anything else we've seen so far. Our guide, Kim, took us to his favourite bia hoi place in town, and after a couple of glasses we went back to the hotel for dinner. Kim said he's meet us there and we all thought he was going to chat to someone he knew. To our surprise he was waiting at hte hotel for us, saying "when I have a couple of drinks I don't like walking, driving is better"!!! He's actually gone and borrowed his friends moped. Crazy, he later went off to meet his 16 year old girlfriend. At 25 years old we thought it was a little weird but apparently its normal in Vietnam. Different. On day three we jsut sailed for about 3 hours before returning to Halong City for the same dull bus ride." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bshorts/3/1214549820/tpod.html Photos from this trip: 1. ""Amazing Cave"" 2. "The junk" 3. "Scenery" 4. "Scenery 2" 5. "Jumping from the top of the boat" 6. "Sunset of sorts" 7. "Scenery 3" 8. "Kayaking 1" 9. "At the village" 10. "Villagers gambling - 11am" 11. "Together" 12. "Kayaking 3" 13. "Our biggest hotel room ever" See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-0149-8294-4618?ytv4=1

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