A night on a Junk Boat

We met our group on the morning of our departure to Halong Bay; an archipelago of limestone islands sculpted by the sea into incredible towering formations. Our hearts sank when we realised that our group consisted of three middle aged couples, a forty year old man from california, a 27 year old man boy fresh out of highschool, a lesbian couple, two more girls and andreas the anorexic german. We were in other words the youngest by ten years, which we learned to use to our advantage. Neither of us have ever experienced being the babies, seeing as we are both oldest in our own families. Being the youngest definitely has it's advantages (how come you have never told us this Harald and Philippa?!). We got our bags carried for us, we were always told that things would be sorted out and we should'nt worry, people made sure we didn't get lost and we got to ride shotgun all bus journeys.

Our guide Groud became our substitute mother for the entire trip, when we met her we weren't sure whether she was a man or a woman, but she turned out to be the most incredible person in the entire world (after us). She loved us, and she always asked if we had "eaten though", if "we were ok though" and told us repeatedly "girls put some sunscreen on". Everything we said to her would be answered with "Girls!" a slap on the arm and her scrunching up her face whilst doubled up laughing, we're still not quite sure why.

Anyway back to Halong Bay, it was beautiful. We got on a junk boat (not literally a boat that carries rubbish which is what I thought at first) which sailed us through the limestone landscape. It looked just like jurassic park, because the whole time it was kind of misty and rainy. The captain steered the boat with his feet whilst working out his arms with dumbells, awesome fellow.

Mr. Captain

The fancy restaurant on board

Hanna doing her best "Cruise Pose"

This was meant to look like two chickens... see the resemblance?

On the boat we had an epic amount of seafood, and managed to digest it just in time for our cave experience. This involved climbing two hundred stairs with a million french tourists up to a big limestone cave, which Julia and I sort of sped through. After that we got back on the boat which took us to a cove.

We hopped on a rowing boat that didn't look like it could carry 15 people without sinking, that took us through a mountain and out the other side to look at some monkeys. They were really really cute, Groud had just finshed telling us that these monkeys were being killed by idiot tourists who fed them the wrong food, when our 'local' guide suggests we feed them chewing gum. Luckily we managed to stop him killing off the wildlife by suggesting we feed them the oranges someone had with them instead.


Our room on the junk boat was a lot nicer than we expected it to be, en suite, two beds, air conditioning! Amazing... or so we thought until we spent more than five minutes in there. At times it smelled of poo and others it smelled of toxic fumes which made you feel dizzy. It was also damp and kind of slicked you with a layer of something that wouldn't really come off. We were also right by the engine which made everything vibrate the whole time.


On the last morning our Junk took us to a beach, unfortunately it was pouring with rain so Julia and I decided to climb up to a viewpoint, this was an immense workout and when we got to the top we were red and flustered and I had a sinus infection so it felt like my head was about to explode. We couldn't really appreciate the view, got some awesome pictures though.

This was the local supermarket

Passing the time on board