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Ha Long Bay was a strange, almost mystical experience. Our junk carved a path through the north and east part of the bay, but the water was so calm you could hear voices from hundreds and hundreds of metres away. The weather was evidently overcast, but this made the mood of the place even more eerie.

Cat Ba Island is a hilly jungle with a port town at one end.

There were some enormous limestone caves to see, but bad light meant crap photos.

Although the scenery was amazing, the organisational skills of the tour guys were pretty shocking. Any itinerary they were pretending to keep to was re-invented about every three hours. Hopeless excuses were regular. Like "The boat is broken" and "We lost the tickets". But everything worked out in the end, despite spending long periods following a tour guide who would've had trouble guiding us out of door marked 'Exit'.