Ha Long Bay

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Halong Bay

What an amazing entry into Halong bay….. with its hundreds of islands, it was like something out of a fantasy movie, with the sun coming up and the sea mist, one island after another came out of the mist - all strange shapes and sizes.
The Ship moored in the bay and we tendered in by the lifeboats. It was a lovely warm day and the place had not a lot to do, just viewing awesome scenery - we don’t ask for much, do we? We tried to get on a trip to the countryside but it was full up, so we just did our own thing (as usual). This was to walk the length of the bay, stopping for respite in the Saigon-halong hotel and visiting the top floor observation point with views over the whole bay. Fantastic view of beaches uncluttered by tourists and a hotel that was the same (they are just starting to develop their tourist industry - get there while it is still pristine) - a great find.
We ambled back along the bay experiencing the local markets. They were selling lovely traditional ladies clothes which I enjoyed trying on. However I did not buy what might look like PJ’s and did not know how bright yellow, silk, see-through trousers might go down in Glasgow’s weegieland. - they were lovely on however.
As we walked along the beach we saw millions of amazing mini crabs that scurried down their holes when we moved- it was weird, as out of the corner of your eye you saw what looked like the sand melting due to all this simultaneous movement of mini crabs.
We decided to take a junk boat trip around the many islands. Hundreds of the junks were all jostling for their positions when trying to moor bumping each other for prime places.. Lovely trip as we glided past a floating village and on to an island with spectacular caves - we went into a huge cave that was so big and awesome it didn’t look real - felt like we could have been in Disney world, but Disney couldn’t do it this good. It was all lit up with coloured lights, stalactites, stalagmites, weird shaped rocks and cavernous ceilings - we had never seen anything like it.
Back on the Junk we sailed slowly through mystical islands - passing strange shapes in the sea, watching eagles in flight, fishermen in small boats fishing and generally moving through a surreal landscape.
However the saddest part of the day was that my camera was stolen or lost. I was Gutted - we tried to find it by retracing our steps and tracking down the taxi driver as Murdo had been snap happy and took photos of not only the landscape but also the inside of the taxi!!! Even though we didn’t speak their language and they didn’t speak ours, the help of a taxi license photo helped track down the taxi we had got into - but no luck. We also asked the security men on the ship if it had been handed in, but to no avail.
However Halong bay was truly spectacular and they are running a campaign to make it an official ‘wonder of the world’. It has our vote!!!
We left Halong bay with its people who seamed to live ON the sea and scenery that amazed us.
Would love to spend a week here - just soaking up the atmosphere.

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Comments

[anonymous]

camera lost
Very sorry to hear you lost the camera, but if you think that the camera was left in the taxi and you have the information of the taxi driver, please contact to policemen (who actually are quite helpful to the foreigners, but not to the locals). It is easier to ask your tour guides fro helps. In fact, from news I could see several cases tourists received their goods back from taxi drivers. Hope you can find your camera (more importantly the memory card full of photos, I think) and enjoy the time in Vietnam. Ah, I have twice visited Glasgow. It is a lovely city and people there are so kind and friendly. My Prof. from Glasgow also likes Halong bay very much.