The Halong Bay tour is probably the priciest thing I will do on my wanderings in SE Asia. I ended up with a real good crew of maybe 25 people and was quite pleased with the whole experience.
Our boat, "The Jolly Rogers" was very nice; everything was clean, the rooms were spacious enough and air conditioned to boot. Food was tasty and plentiful. Jumping off the three story vessel was a blast. Kayaking to the caves was short-lived, coming in at maybe 45 minutes each way. The cave was stunning and opened up at on point to a small lake cradled by the walls of the karst that contained it. That night, shortly after the drinking started, six of us paid the boat man to take us out onto the waters in the smaller transit boat. We had him take us for one hour to various other vessels looking for other party-people. We boarded several vessels without permission, but the passengers seemed endlessly amused by the boldness of it. After visiting more than a dozen vessels and passing many quieter looking ones by entirely, we came to the realization that we had the hippest boat in Halong Bay, and so upon our return the drinking games ensued.
It was a short night and the next morning came far too soon. Rare is the morning that I wake up drunk, but such was the nature of this morning. All fatigue was forgotten though as we pulled up to "Castaway Island" which is owned or at least leased out by the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel who I booked with. There we had free reign over snorkeling gear, and kayaks. I swam about in the cove, played a few games of beach volleyball, ate lunch, passed out, and proceeded to take to the bay. Along with a girl from the Philippines I kayaked out for an hour before coming to the realization that I was lost. it took the better part of another hour to find our beach.
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