Day 53 - Caves and kayaking in Halong Bay

I checked out of the hostel today at 8 am and took a minibus to Halong Bay which is about a 3 hour drive away. The minibus was late for pick up and ended up stopping for 30 min at a place that manufactured sculptures and touristly trinkety crap as a "rest stop". What a tourist trap this was. Everything here was completely overpriced and useless. I'm sure all the drivers get a commision for stopping here.

We arrived in Halong Bay around noon and received our 40000D($2.75) ticket to enter the caves. I was pleasantly surprised that our tour guide spoke semi-fluent English and the boat as accommodation was more than adequate. The first stop was to walk through some giant caves. It was much different than my caving experience in Chiang Mai (Thailand) as these cave were enormous and heavily toured to the point of having steps and lights built in the cave for tourism purposes. Lots of stalagtites and stalagmites that formed columns. This place was jam packed full of people and was not the experience I had hoped it would be but it was beautiful nonetheless.

After touring the caves, the boat passed through a floating village where the people live in shack-like houses on the water. Women were trying to sell produce off their little row boats. I was really happy that I got a life jacket before I got into the kayak. Kayaking in off the boat and through some of the caverns at Halong Bay was a fantastic experience. The caverns were large and beautiful but the water was quite cold. The sunset off the deck of the boat was absolutely beautiful. It was a good end to a full day.