Halong Bay

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Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 June

2 day, 1 night trip to Halong bay, a Unesco heritage site about 3 hours east of Hanoi.

Pretty boring minibus trip to Halong City but our guide keeps us entertained. His English is pretty good and he has a sense of humour. Even manages to let us believe he's just 19 even though he's 34!

Board our junk, which is pretty nice and are given ice cold minted towels - very refreshing. Sit down to a seafood lunch.
Scenery is stunning, photos do it better justice than words.
Stop off at some huge caves, quite a hike up 25 meters of steps in blazing sunshine and high humidity. I thought Mum was going to collapse.

Later on we swim from the boat and Klas, Max, Charlotte and Alex go kayaking.

Dinner is a big seafood spread, thankfully in an airconditioned dining room!

Overnight on the junk, cabins are surprisingly roomy with flashy marble bathrooms with showers. And air-con. Thank God for air-con.

More stunning scenery as well as one more cave the following morning. Quite surreal surroundings.

Back in Hanoi we have a few hours at the hotel before our 23:00 departure by overnight ”express” train to Hue. Unfortunately unable to get first class soft sleeper tickets, we had to settle for hard sleeper bunks. The train was totally packed, pretty ancient and we,as rare westerners, were the source of much curiosity and amusement. With 6 beds to a cabin, Klas drew the short straw and had a bunk in the next cabin which he was supposed to share with twelve loud young vietnamese lads who sang and played cards all night. So he bunked in with us and Max ended up on the floor with our blankets as a bed. What we hadn't counted on was the air con beeing so fierce, Mum got the last laugh as she had her fleece with her.

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