Next up was a long, long journey to Ha Long Bay. A crowded bus ride with two many high pitched British girls, and a very crowded marina later, we finally made it to our 'junk'. (Junk being the traditional name for this Vietnamese type of boat). We were not exactly enthused by the very cloudy skies and occasional drizzle, but one is not in Ha Long Bay every day, so we staked out our spot at the top of the boat and ate pistachios and ma&m's for lunch (not having any time to procure real food at the harbor).
Ha Long Bay is a pretty amazing site even fully clouded in. There are some ~1500 islands, mostly limestone 'karsts' that jut straight out of the water and very few of which are inhabited.
We made a stop at two large caves which we were similarly unenthused with and then proceeded to play bumper boats. Matt took the video below, but essentially, the other boats wouldn't move out of our way so we just put the throttle to the floor and forcibly pushed them out of our way. This was going on on all sides. The video missed it, but we actually took a good sized chunk out of one of the other boats.
The next morning we set out for breakfast and discovered one of our more favorite things in Vietnam - mango and pineapple pancakes. I think by the end of the trip we racked up 8 different places where we had them, all different but the first the best. After breakfast we set off to find kayaks and got our first taste of how cheap things were in Vietnam. And weird. They kayak for both of us was $4 for the four hours. We were originally told $2.50 and shown a piece of paper that said kayak from 2011 ($4/four hours) and kayak (2010) $2.50/four hours. The "2010" was probably at least 20 years old and its ability to float highly questionable. "2011" was at least 10 years old, but looked like it could at least repel water, so we signed up. This was one of my favorite parts: out in a (more) remote part of the bay all by ourselves, discovering islands and beaches in the sunshine.
After a morning of kayaking, we rented a motorbike ($5 for the day) and visited Hospital Cave and Cat Ba National Park. The (online) guidebook had noted that hiking on the island was quite good, but highly recommended a guide due to the difficulty of the trail and difficulty of finding the trail. While we weren't worried about the cost (see above) we just aren't into dragging someone else along with us and trying to make conversation. We decided to attempt one on our own "Two hours, if you're going to do one on your own do this one, but many people still turn back" and made it to the top 25 minutes later. Oh. The views were stunning and some fellow aussies at the top (the only other people we saw) advised us that while the lookout tower was quite rickety, the view was significantly improved from up there. Up we went. I've never been scared of heights, but this was sure close. Anyway, the view was fantastic and after soaking it in we headed back to our motorbike and in search of the sunset.
After a fairly long run in with a local trying to charge us to get into this old fort when others (happened to be locals) were clearly just walking in b/c it was after hours, we made it to a fantastic view of the bay and then sunset. Totally worth it.
The next morning Matt woke up early early and ran up to where we had watched sunset the night before and caught sunrise. After that we took a walk, hung around town, and then started the long journey back to Hanoi (it was really only 6 hours, but they were a long 6 hours). After that, we were off to Hoi An (different then Hanoi) on a night bus (oh the horror!).
Cat Ba Island ended up being our favorite stop of the trip, and we wish we'd had one more day to explore. I won't go into the details (except where I already have) but by the time we got back to Hanoi we'd been cheated, lied to, and extorted (all for small sums of money and small incidents) enough that we were pretty fed up. Loved the settings, not exactly charmed by the experience in the North. Luckily, things improved dramatically from there on out.
Ha Long Bay is a pretty amazing site even fully clouded in. There are some ~1500 islands, mostly limestone 'karsts' that jut straight out of the water and very few of which are inhabited.
oops. We took a chunk out of it
Aside from that, we visited a floating fishing village, sailed through a decent sunset, and got a good view of some of the many islands. After dark, we made it to Cat Ba Island, by far the largest island in the bay where we stayed for the next two nights. 
Floating fishing village
Pictures of us together. Few and far between.
Sunshine! It's like a whole different world.
After a morning of kayaking, we rented a motorbike ($5 for the day) and visited Hospital Cave and Cat Ba National Park. The (online) guidebook had noted that hiking on the island was quite good, but highly recommended a guide due to the difficulty of the trail and difficulty of finding the trail. While we weren't worried about the cost (see above) we just aren't into dragging someone else along with us and trying to make conversation. We decided to attempt one on our own "Two hours, if you're going to do one on your own do this one, but many people still turn back" and made it to the top 25 minutes later. Oh. The views were stunning and some fellow aussies at the top (the only other people we saw) advised us that while the lookout tower was quite rickety, the view was significantly improved from up there. Up we went. I've never been scared of heights, but this was sure close. Anyway, the view was fantastic and after soaking it in we headed back to our motorbike and in search of the sunset.
View from hospital cave
After a fairly long run in with a local trying to charge us to get into this old fort when others (happened to be locals) were clearly just walking in b/c it was after hours, we made it to a fantastic view of the bay and then sunset. Totally worth it.
The next morning Matt woke up early early and ran up to where we had watched sunset the night before and caught sunrise. After that we took a walk, hung around town, and then started the long journey back to Hanoi (it was really only 6 hours, but they were a long 6 hours). After that, we were off to Hoi An (different then Hanoi) on a night bus (oh the horror!).
Cat Ba Island ended up being our favorite stop of the trip, and we wish we'd had one more day to explore. I won't go into the details (except where I already have) but by the time we got back to Hanoi we'd been cheated, lied to, and extorted (all for small sums of money and small incidents) enough that we were pretty fed up. Loved the settings, not exactly charmed by the experience in the North. Luckily, things improved dramatically from there on out.
