Ha Long Bae, amiright?

Reporting live from Ubud, Bali Indonesia kiddos! 

That's right, the Nam leg of the trip is over- but that doesn't mean you're getting rid of me that easily! The trip is over, but the posts are far from done. (I honestly just have so many pictures to show and I want to be like those annoying family members that make you sit and watch while they scroll through their camera roll after a holiday.)

So, in continuation of the Vietnam Chronicles; Ha Long Bay was next.

And as the theme for Vietnam was lack of planning and spur of the moment decisions- we literally booked this trip at 9pm the night before leaving at 7am. The trip was incredible and frankly a no brainer. A 'party cruise' through Ha Long Bay- price including a bus to the harbour and back to Hanoi at the end, pretty luxe cabins on the boat, meals, and "activities". And off we headed, on a four hour bus ride to the harbour, and onto what was easily the most fancy shmancy part of our trip so far. The boat was awesome. The activities included kayaking in a bay and under a cave, through to a little secluded section in amongst the islands. Which I can finally tick off my bucket list because, really, who doesn't want to kayak through islands and into a secluded bay of turquoise water in Vietnam?

Just as an update in case you're thinking "islands????". Ha Long Bay is essentially a collection of islands, varying from a small boulder to a pretty sharp mountainous incline straight out of the water; and theres approximately 200 of them just scattered in the sea off the coast. It's so beautiful and frankly didn't feel real. 

So just to prove it was; I'm going to bombard you with pictures of them in 3... 2... 1...

And then on top of the fancy cabins, the kayaking, the diving-off-the-boat-ing, there was the obligatory party on the party cruise. Granny Kiki took herself and her anti-biotics off to bed pretty early but I heard 500 Miles blaring well into the night so it's safe to say that you are assured the party.

The following day we hopped onto a tiny little wooden boat, with a wheezing engine, and shipped off to Freedom Island where we would spend our second night. And island that is approximately 40 metres by 20 metres. Teeny tiny. And all ours for the night. And Granny Kiki is happy to announce that the crowd was a little tender after the previous nights shenanigans, so the evening was filled with Heads Up and Jenga. Super cute, especially considering the tropical torrential downpours that swept the island every 40 minutes or so (seriously, it was touch and go for a minute).

I don't have many pictures from the islands because pictures would never do it justice (and because I spent a lot of the time reading on the beach or napping in a hammock- no time for snaps).

And after a rainy night in an actual real cabin/dorm (bit of a downgrade from the 4-star cruise ship cabin we had the night before), we all hopped back onto the wheezing boat and paddled off to the Big Boat Big Cruise- as our party organiser Barry kept calling it- for a cooking demonstration and a melancholic ride back to the harbour.

If you're going to do anything in Vietnam that's a little more splashy with the cashy, I so highly recommend this cruise. There is the option to do the 'family' version if you're more interested in the kayaking and the sights/experience as opposed to the tequila specials at 2am. But it's really something that, if you can fit it into your budget, you have to do.

If not for the islands, do it for the Beer Yoga on the top deck.

#Vietnam #beach #travel #seaside #GingerDoes