On Saturday we met up with the girls who we met in Hong Kong and they had a whole crew of people with them because they have just come from Laos. It was Lauren's birthday so we went for a meal and had a big catch up with what has been happening. We had a group of 12 people so someone had to step up to the task and become the delegator and don't worry people, I didn't let the team down. I became one of the best delegators of all time by haaving a scheduled to do list, which included the famous recess, where most of the girls were crying for some reason. I learnt from my mistake and recess was banned from now on! We booked our boat trip for the next 2 days in the evening after some haggling, which cost us $25 including food, beds, caves and kayaking-Good deal!
Halong Bay is in the Chinese sea and has thousands of small island kasts peaking out of the sea. It's a bit like Yangshuo but in the water. On the first day, the boat sailed to the main cave, which was pretty boring so we decided to look for rocks that looked like people or animals-that was a lot more interesting. After the caves, we all went out to do some Kayaking and I was forced to team up with Lauren. We called our team, Team Maj and his bitch, which everyone approved of. Charlotte and Chloe, who were in our group managed to find themselves under a big boat, with the boat ramming their Kayak, knocking them out and being forced to swim under the boat. Luckily they both were ok, with a few war wounds to tell their kids the story. When we finished kayaking, the owner tried charging the girls $520 for the Kayak, even though it was the captains fault from the big boat. They had to go and get him from his boat and he was denying any responsibility saying that the kayaking paddled into the big boat. They decided in the end, that they would meet up the next day and go to the police to sort this out but the captain never turned up, so god knows what happened then but at least the girls didn't have to pay. We spent the night on the boat, which was cool because they were about 100 other boats, all lit up int he night. We just chilled out to start of with but then it turned out to be a party in the end, with the boat crew yelling at us every 5 minutes. It didn't help with Danny and Elliot jumping in from the top of the boat at night but what was funny was that Elliot couldn't get back up. he was hanging off that rope like Smeagol and had to stand on Danny's shoulders to get back on the boat-fool! In the morning, we got collared because one of the chairs were missing and we eventually found out that Tommy (the Scottish throwing champion) threw the chair whilst he was slightly merry the night before.
With Hanoi being a capital city, its surprising that there wasn't much to see. We went to see Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam's hero) whose body is preserved in his mausoleum. We had to be dressed right and weren't allowed to speak. The tomb is only open for 3hrs per day and has loads of security. It was weird seeing this guy who looked like he was asleep but has been dead for 40 years. After the mausoleum, we went to the prison museum, which was ruled by the french and they imprisoned the Vietnamese political groups, who were a threat to them. They also imprisoned the Americans including John McCain. At first, it was boring but once i realised how many people died and how they got treated, it made it more meaningful and sad at the same time.
Hanoi-Halong Bay photo link:
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