Hanoi is by far my favorite major city in Vietnam. We made our way to backpackers ally where we found a plethera of other young travelers like ourselves. Our hostel (backpacker's hostel) is deffenatly the party hostel complete with drunken Europeans hanging from every windowsill. The ally where we are staying is a pleasant mix of travelers and locals cooking up new and interesting dishes. The smells are amazing and apart from the ever constant jackhammering it is peaceful here. As we look for a tour through Halong Bay our hostel attempts to pull us into their $170 three day two night spring breaker's wet dream but again money is an issue so we venture out into the bustling city in search of a better tour. Again the food has rocked our world. We found ourselves a cheap tour for $40, but the tour agent wasnt to hopeful, "you pay cheap you get cheap". We asked about AC and she said "for cheap I donno if work or no. For delux package I guarentee". So we signed up with the mentality that we've been through worse and we may arrive at Halong Bay to meet a dingy. In the market we sat down to enjoy some teryaky and soup. Out of all of the beer I have ever tasted Hanoi beer is by far the worst, it tastes like beer flavored water. On the way back Mateo And I started contemplating our trip, we have 14 days and are not sure if we want to return to Ho Chi Mien to catch our flight to Thailand (we can make our way over by land instead). So a quick trip to the travel agent revealed that our travel insurance (that we paid for) doesn't exsist and we can't change or cancel our tickets (well because of a major fluc I can, but Mateo got hosed). So we returned to our hostel for happy hour to discuss our options with our fellow travelers over some beers. We met a group of very diverse people from Denmark, Germany, austrelia, and we had a very fun night out with them chatting in over 7 different languages. By the end on the night I was shouting German and Danish phrases at the already inebreated masses in backpackers ally.
Wood. The next morning we reluctantly got up early to catch our mystery bus tour all the while praying we wouldn't be the only young people. The party boat group looked primed and ready for their cruise when our bus pulled up and thank God it was filled with our age group. Along the 4 hour trek to Halong city we got to know some of the people and found some travelers to hook up with on the cruise. The port was caotic to say the least; passports being asked for, groups being split up, pure chaos. Finally we saw our boat and to our delightful surprise it was HUGE! Halong Bay........ One of the... if not thee most beautiful sights I have ever or will ever see. Over 1,600 limestone islets sticking sharply out of the ocean. With each islet covered in jungle and riddled with caves. Our giant boat chugged along at an incredibly slow pace but it was worth it. I kept reciting the line from the line from the movie Contact "No words..... They should have sent... A poet..". We stopped at one of the caves which again was mindblowing but SUPER touristed out (see pictures). The cave it self was enormous and the disney-like colored lighting only added to this overwhelming effect. Then more cruising up the bay and just island after island after island. It looked like a scene from Avatar. I did get to chat with a US soldier who works in the medical side of the military and he got me very interested that option.... We finally arrived at the main island Cat Ba were our 1st night stay would be. Our hotel is aweful. No eletricity, horrible smells, rude staff, crapy rooms by far one of the worst hotels ever. And half of the options we were promised we didnt receive. We teamed up with others from our group and went out on the town and had some fun. Tomorrow we will explore the island and sleep on the boat. That's it for now.
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