Day 6 - Cruising and Kayaking Lan Ha Bay

Today we got up fairly early and headed to the Asia Outdoors shop next door to our hotel to meet up for our cruise/kayak trip of Lan Ha bay. After a 5 minute bus ride to the bay we boarded what's called a "junk boat" which is just an old wooden ship. Our boat had a main cabin and a top deck which we sat on as we cruised out to pick up the kayaks. On our way we passed the floating markets, which, you guessed it, are markets that are floating in the bay. Lots of people live on these floating villages and fish, it's not super touristy at all. 

-Floating Markets in the Bay

Another awesome thing about today was that the sun was finally out! Which was nice even though it was still relatively cold (60 degrees)! Once we got in our kayaks out tour guide, mike, took us around the bay which was full of incredible views. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took were on the waterproof camera so I'll have to upload them later. We then kayaked to a cave where we got out of our kayaks and were able to walk through. I wore flip-flops which wasn't the best choice as one of them broke on me as I was walking through the cave, but thankfully I was able to borrow my Dads water shoes since he didn't feel like going further. The cave led to a small lagoon at the other side with more incredible views. After the cave we kayaked some more and stopped at Moody beach which was on one of the small islands in the bay. 

-Moody Beach

-Bouldering on the beach 

After hanging out and climbing some of the rocks on the beach we made our way back to the boat for lunch. 

The lunch was surprisingly good and consisted of rice, salad, salmon, spring rolls, and tofu. After eating we cruised for another 45 min out into the bay for another bit of kayaking. This time my dad decided he was too tired and stayed on the boat while I went with another person in our group. We kayaked around the bay through some stone arches and too a few beaches. One of the beaches we went to had a temple on it with a shrine of sorts which was really interesting. Once again the views were awesome! Finally we made our way back to the boat and cruised back to Cat Ba. Once we got back to the hotel I showered and passed out before we even went to lunch! Tomorrow we had back to Haboi for a couple days before we fly to Laos which I'm super excited about (the weather should finally be warmer!)