If you have seen James Bond's Tomorrow Never Dies or Kong: Skull Island or Pan then you will have seen Halong Bay on the screen. It looks even more beautiful in real life. We had booked a day's boat trip so we got picked up from the hotel at 8 am. On the boat there were some 20 other people. Emerald waters and limestone islands as far as the eye could see. I believe there are more than 1500 of these islands popping out of the water and it is truly awe inspiring. Needless to say everyone was clicking away on their cameras and phones. I must've taken more than 200 photos this day alone!

After sailing for a an hour or so we stopped at a bay and went kayaking for an hour which was included in the price. Then we had lunch on board which was very tasty. Got chatting to other travellers and had a great time. We stopped for swimming and snorkelling in the afternoon before arriving at Monkey island. There were loads of other boats all over Halong bay as it is such a popular spot however we never felt crowded in as the area is so vast.

What was billed as a hike on Monkey island turned out to be a rock climb. Me in my flip flops. Still we made it to the top for even more stunning views before heading back to Cat Ba. It was our last evening but we had an early start as we had to get to Hanoi before 5 pm next day to return the bikes so we had a couple of beers with Ryan (yes we ran into him again) and turned in.

No riding done today