Ha Long (Part 2)

The next morning, we were transferred to a day boat for the day's activities.

We started by hiking up 400 steps to the pagoda perched on the top of this island.

The view from up top was pretty fantastic.

We got there just in time, because as we were going down the stairs, the hoards of tourists started getting dropped off en masse by their respective cruise ships. By the time we left, it was almost impossible to maneuver up or down on the stairs up to the pagoda.

The next activity (a boat to an island with some monkeys on it) looked just as touristy, so I stayed on the boat and read a book while Nick went and scoped it out. The highlight was apparently when their boat hit another boat and knocked the other boat's oarsman into the water. 

Our last activity was way less busy - we kayaked through a cave and into a secluded inlet with no other people but those in our group.