Vietnam- day 72

Day 72 Wed 11/7
We woke up early and met the forty other backpackers who joined us as we journeyed three days/two nights through HaLong bay. The trip started from Hanoi with a four hour bus ride to the port where we loaded onto a boat to Castaway Island. The tour we chose was the most popular among young backpackers, but is also known as the "party tour". In the bus we met a lot of the others from around the world, many from Canada, Australia, England, and Germany. There was one other American with us from California, which turned into a nice bus conversation, because about an hour into the ride, Obama got elected. Justin (the Californian) was very knowledgable on politics and what exactly has been happening in the world and the rest of the bus was very interested in American politics as well. We got to the boat around noon and cruised through the gorgeous HaLong bay for about four hours, viewing over 1500 islands with huge rocks, gorgeous greenery, and scattered beaches. We also enjoyed drinking games on the party boat and learned the rules of the island: if you drank anything with your right hand, you got buffaloed and were forced to chug your drink on spot and go replace it at the bar, and if you said the words "mine" or "ten", you had to do ten push-ups. We stopped for a swim break for about an hour and arrived at the island around 5:30, where we were welcomed by the group that arrived the day before us. We knew a few of them, because we had roomed with them for a night in Hanoi before they left for HaLong bay. Our welcoming was the group painting themselves and acting dead on the island and as we arrived the popped up, made a tunnel and slapped us as we ran through onto the beach. The little beach has about six bungalows that each sleep around ten people each(a mat, blanket, and mosquito net around each one), five bathrooms, four showers, and a covered pavilion area for food and company. The night was fun. We celebrated Diego the Argentinians birthday and the Californian got into a fight with a Canadian who was 6 ft 4 in. Unfortunately, Justin's nose broke and he accompanied the welcoming group home the next morning.