Halong Bay

We have returned to the big city after enjoying a fabulous three days in Halong Bay. We left Hanoi Saturday, and after 3.5 hours we reached Halong Bay City. We boarded our great Chinese junk boat, but had to jump over three other boats to get there - which is not easy with forty pounds on your back. We explored Amazing Cave the first day, and had some fabulous food on the boat. The next day we got our sea kayaks and had a great time discovering lagoons and fishing villages. We saw a few monkeys on the cliffside climbing through the trees. Jen asked our guide, Duc ("Duke") if the Vietnamese ate these monkeys, and he said yes. She asked, "How do they catch them, do they use traps?" He responded, "Yes, sometimes, ... Or they just use a gun."
We stayed the second night on CatBa Island in a great hotel. And then steamed back to Halong Bay the next day. This was a great start to our trip. We had some fun tourmates which made our first three days great!
We leave on the night train for SaPa tonight, where will be doing some trekking and staying with the hilltribes, who apparently have satellite dishes! Very remote!