Cat Ba Island

Today I stumbled out of bed after a night of drinking, karaoke, and hardly any sleep to catch my bus to Halong Bay, where I boarded a boat which cruised around Halong Bay a bit. We stopped at this really spectacular cave (I don't remember the name. I'm worthless) that was only discovered in 1995 but is of course now a huge tourist spot. The port at Halong Bay is incredibly crowded with tourist boats, but with good reason. Halong Bay has 1,969 limestone islands (the entire Gulf of Tonkin has about 3,000), so the views are really nice, though the sun only appeared for a short time today. It's pretty much been overcast my entire time in Vietnam (but not at all in Hanoi. The city sky seems to be covered in some sort of fog...maybe it's pollution), but oh well. I am now on Cat Ba Island, a large island in the bay, where I will be staying for the night. Tomorrow I think we drive around the island and perhaps do some sea kayaking, or at least I'm really hoping we do.