The stunning Halong Bay

I headed to Halong Bay for a couple of days with a good bunch, probably 30 or so of us in total. There were a lot of Irish people as well as a few Canadians, Birts and others - a good mix in all. We had the perfect ingredients for a complete mess.

Halong is a few hours from Hanoi, from where we caught a boat, which we stayed on for the next 24 hours or so.



The afternoon was spent tucking into the great food on offer - prawns, pork strippers, chicked, vegetables - all really good. We then headed out on kayaks. The scenery was spectacular and we found a very quiet place to kayak, away from the many other boats out in the bay.

On our return, the mess began to take effect. Drinking games had begun early, and everyone was jumping into the water from the top deck before the 10pm deadline kicked in. I became the resident DJ as my iPod and choice of music proved popular. As the games continued, the 'you are not to jump into the water past 10pm' message was ignored by the vast majority as we repeatly jumped into the cool waters in darkness up until 2am when we decided it was time to chill out. I ended up sleeping around 5am before being disturbed by Chelsey gatecrashing the room I was sharing with Dan.

It was a tough next morning, but a very chilled one as we said goodbye to most of the people and heading back to Halong. The bar tab was ridiculous, but it wasn't to spoil the overall two days which were brilliant fun.