Ha Long Bay

---

Ha long Bay is about a 2 hour drive from Hanoi, so we made a day trip of it. The bus dropped us off at the pier and we got on our boat and were off. They served us this delicious meal on the boat, and we got to know our fellow travellers; two girls from Sweden and a girl from Australia (poor Steve was outnumbered 5:1). Although we had some serious fog obstructing our view, it was easy to see why people say this is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Its like the feeling you get in a mountain range, except you are on a boat and the mountains are surrounded by water instead of land. The islands just kept going and going, it made you feel very small in a good way. We arrived at a pier and went kayaking around some of the islands; we saw an eagle (I think we got too close to her nest) and went through caves into small lagoons and such. Afterwards we did some more sight seeing from the boat, and then went climbing through a series of caves up to a lookout. There was the most beautiful lagoon nestled in the centre of the island that can't be reached by boat or easily on foot, It was amazing to see. Steve really like the stalagmites and stalactites (?) in the caves. On the way back I was finally able to take a photo of a "Junk" with its sail up (This type of boat is called a Junk, it was fun to read advertisements saying they had the best fleet of junk in Vietnam). We got back quite late, had another amazing meal, and went to bed to sleep before our very early flight to Nha Trang the next day.

---