Vietnam - HaLong Bay, Phong Nah

After the Sapa tour, we continued our night journey to our boat tour in HaLong Bay. We spent one night on the boat and did quite a lot of activities in a short time, which were included in the tour. So first, we went from the pier to a small bay where we were allowed to canoe and already had a beautiful landscape around us, even though it was unfortunately quite hazy. I was lucky to share a canoe with some snail from the boat who didn't understand the system of paddling left on one side and right on the other. So most of the time, we just drifted, which was also quite pleasant ;)

After that, we went to a huge cave where we marched through with our guide and he gave us some more information, but I have already forgotten all of it.

Then we went to the last stop of the day which was supposed to be a beach. However, at that time, the tide was already so high that there was nothing left of the beach. Instead, there was a great viewpoint that one could climb up to and actually had a beautiful view!

In the evening, karaoke was offered on the boat and a group of girls who got completely drunk kept whining the whole time. I was in their cabin with Silke and Felix and we made plans for our next stop.

The next morning, we visited an oyster farm where it was explained to us how the mussels are 'fertilized' and how the pearls actually form. Quite interesting. ;) Then we only went back to the pier and the tour was unfortunately over again.

Next, we went to Phong Nah on recommendation, as they said it was a highlight of their trip, with ziplining, mud bath, and cave trekking. It sounded pretty good. So when we arrived in Phong Nah, we immediately booked such a tour and were picked up for the tour after a few hours of sleep. The guide was not so great this time and it was not so relaxing either, as we were rushed from one part to the next. In short, the cave was pretty cool, but since it was already the third one I visited, it wasn't that exciting anymore, and the ziplining felt like it lasted only 3 seconds. What I found quite funny was the mud bath. For that, we first walked for 15 minutes through a cave with our great construction worker helmets and headlamps and slipped about 10 times. In the mud bath, I almost slipped the whole time but it was really fun and the longer you stayed in it, the better it got ;) On the way back, everyone had to slide down a certain spot in the mud on their butts, which caused everyone to get scratches because it was unfortunately not so smooth.

So it was quite fun but definitely not worth the money, and we really couldn't understand why it was such a highlight of the trip for the others :D