Halong Bay and Cat Ba

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Hi everyone!

We've just finished a 3 day tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island, off the coast of northern Vietnam. After a 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi, we acquired a guide (which meant we could relax for a few days on the planning side!) and boarded a boat, or 'junk' as they refer to them as, at Halong City. From here we had a 4/5 hour boat ride around Halong Bay, which had fantastic scenery, as thousands of giant rocks/islands stand alone in the sea. Luckily we had fairly clear weather (and it hasn't rained on us yet since China!) and made for some great photographs. On the way we stopped off at one of these smallish islands and visited a giant cave which had been eroded over millions of years - pretty stunning stuff! We also cruised past floating houses and entire villages in the sea, where local indigenous people live.

In the early evening we reached Cat Ba island (the biggest and most inhabited island in Halong Bay), which is literally straight out of Jurassic Park. Rugged and covered in trees/jungle, it looks fairly untouched by humankind. On our day on the island, we joined the tour on an ascent of a giant peak, which was a lot tougher to climb than they initially suggested (and literally involved a fair bit of rock climbing!). But once at the top there were more spectacular views of the whole island. In the afternoon, we went off for a walk by ourselves and stumbled across some lovely sandy beaches which were completely deserted (it being out of season for the island).

Another good thing of being on the tour was that we were given plenty of Vietnamese food, which is actually not too bad and not a duck skull in sight! Still though, they do like their rice, and after 6 straight meals with rice (including breakfast!) we treated ourselves to some more western dishes when back in Hanoi this evening.

So this morning we left the island and boarded the boat again, which went back through Halong Bay. This morning everything was much foggier which gave a real mystical / lord of the rings-esque feel to the boat journey! Then we got the bus back to Hanoi and are now waiting at our hostel for an overnight sleeper train which heads south to central Vietnam and Hue, our next destination.

On an amusing note, Ryan found out tonight that he had got his Vietnamese words mixed up and had been saying 'sin chow' (which means hello) as thank you to people. This explains many of the perplexed looks we've had from shopkeepers/waiters! Del Boy would be proud.

Hope you're all well.

Love A and R x

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