I went on a boat trip to Halong Bay, then to Bai Tu Long Bay, in the north east of Vietnam, near to China. First we picked up an American girl called Rachel, and we also had a German couple called Christian and Vicky. There were three levels on the boat, the bottom where the cabins were, the middle where we ate and where the kitchen was. The captain sat at the front on this level and steered with his feet! The top level had no roof but deck chairs where we could hang out. After lunch on board we travelled a bit over the water out to the bay, and went kayaking. I went in a kayak with my dad, and had to paddle. He told me what to do, which side to paddle on. We kayaked past a floating village, where people live in houses on water. We even saw a school on water. We saw a cave where a James Bond movie was filmed.
There were a lot of islands and mountains really tall that were full of only trees and bushes with no one living there.
We played a new game called “20 questions” after dinner. It’s a bit like “I-Spy”, trying to figure out what one person is thinking of. You can ask questions that can be answered by a yes or no, like “is it alive?”, or “is it a solid?”, or “do you find it on this boat?”. It was good fun, and I am glad Rachel taught us it.
It was weird sleeping in the boat. The toilet was quite stinky. We could have air conditioning at 8.30pm which was good as it got ate hot in the cabins, even though I was at sea.
We went for a morning kayak, to a cave, which we explored. It wasn’t that big, but we got to see into it. We then kayaked to a beach which just a bit of sand. We went for a swim there. I got 3 cuts on my foot which really hurt.
We went back by boat to Halong City, then took the bus a short distance to another quay, where we caught a smaller junk boat out to an island in Bai Tu Long Bay. Two more German couples and a French couple joined us. It was interesting as the French couple spoke to each other in sign language only. I learned how to say goodnight in sign language. At the boat port when they came I played Kniffel (Yahtzee) and I did my two card tricks on the Germans and on the French. They couldn’t figure out how I did it, but I told Rachel, Christian and Vicky my secret. I really liked playing Kniffel with Vicky and Christian.
After four hours, we arrived on the island. I went on the back of my dad’s bike to get to the home stay. It was a brick house with four floors. The island just got power five months ago. A lot of people have TVs now. There was even wifi. We tried to watch a movie in the Internet but couldn’t. We were shown how to make Vietnamese spring rolls.
A tuk tuk took us to the boat, to get back onto the mainland. We were lucky to get off the island, as there was a storm. We had to get up early to make sure we were ready to go, if the police gave the clearance for the captain to leave the island. Boats have to get permission from the police, to keep the tourists safe. The police told the captain it was ok. It took three hours to get back, then we had a five hour bus trip back to Hanoi.
We took an overnight train to Hué. I had my own bunk bed on the train, and slept on the top bunk. We were on the train for 13 hours.
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