Thanh Pho Hai Phong Travel and Tourism Guide

i woke up spoiled by all the luxuries from the last day and started out with the nice breakfast on deck. nice talks again and a few minutes later we were visiting one of the caves around halong bay which was quite impressive back on the boat we stopped in a isolated place for a last swim. with all the kids and us (older) boys jumping off different boat levels. great fun and perfect view a last brunch buffet and we were back in halong were we boarded the bus with everyone well fed ...

Vietnam has been keeping me busy, and a lot if it is just trying to stay out of the way of all the scooters.  Everyone, and I mean, everyone is on a scooter.  There aren't really that many traffic signals at the intersections either, so you just have to slowly walk across the street so they can see you and drive around.  It takes some guts but you get used to it.  The other problem is they park their scooters on the sidewalks, so you end up having to walk in the road a lot...

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia), Lina and Carola (Germany), Arancha, Marina, Monica and Teresa (Spain), Markus (Germany) We arrived onto Cat Ba Island and got taken for a 2 hour trek by an old Vietnamese guide. After climbing to the summit of a mountain, for some beautiful views across the island and down to the bay, we went on to see an old anti aircraft shelter, used in the Vietnam War against the Americans. The guide was 70 years...

Halong Bay is one of those places that you see in travel magazines or in glossy calenders and was on our "must do" list for Vietnam.  Our start from Hanoi could have been better as we leave in heavy rain and the bus to Halong City is packed full mainly with retired Germans complaining loudly about the poor tour organisation.  Things improved significantly once we reach the harbour and are split into separate groups depending on our tour (day trip, 1 night or 2 ...