We booked a day trip to Halong Bay with Go Asia. We were pleased to be greeted by our very kind and happy tourguide, Kien, when he picked us up from the hotel. Kien spoke very good English (even if he didn't believe it). He gave us a lot of trivia on the bus/road trip to Halong Bay, which my friend and I appreciated, since it helped us learn a bit more about Vietnam and Vietnamese culture. He was really very warm, caring and accommodating, and we felt that he was really excited to be showing us around Halong Bay, his hometown. This kind of excitement rubs off--we quickly got excited too.

The itinerary was good, and we felt that we covered a lot of ground considering the trip was a 4-hour bus ride from Hanoi to Halong bay, and another 4-hour ride back. We got to have a good lunch, which was served hot on the junk boat. We were seated with strangers though, and had to strike up a conversation ourselves.

We also got to go around the bay, and ride a bamboo boat to get closer to the limestone islands of Halong bay. We didn't book this in advance, but we were allowed the option to pay for it on the spot. We were also brought to "Paradise cave," which was a lot more than I expected. Kien once again was a very good tour guide here as he kept the group together, pointed out interesting formations in the stalactites and even apologized for not having his laser pointer with him.

Before dropping us off at the hotel, Kien gave the tour group a treat by singing for us--in Russian! (Earlier that day he explained that he actually studied Russian in school.)

Overall, great itinerary, good food, great communication and one of the best tour guides I've ever had!