Halong Bay

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Vietnam is home to Halong Bay, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is a couple of hours away from Hanoi, and is a stretch of coastline with over 200 limestone karst islands. It is a stunning place, and we spent two days cruising around the islands on a traditional Chinese Junk.

Some of the tours sell in Hanoi for a little as 30 USD, but those trips are usually accompanied by rats on board, so we splashed out on a more salubrious boat and got the VIP treatment (and no furry friends). The first day we stopped off at 'Surprising Cave', which was, well, surprising. It was a huge cave full of stalactites and stalagmites and was refreshingly cool which made a nice change from the hot humid air. We climbed through the cave, and the tour guide took great delight in showing us the rather phalic shaped stalagmite. We managed a bit of sunbathing on the top deck, and Trev had a swim in the ocean whilst doing a spot of shopping from a passing lady selling beer from her little boat. We did an hour or so's kayaking around the islands, which was more than enough (bearing in mind we have not done any exercise for nearly a year now).

At night we were treated to some fabulous food followed by some raucous karaoke (Boataoke?). Vietnamese people love karaoke, and the crew actively encouraged the singing in the bar, and joined in themselves. They fielded the complaints well the next morning!

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Photos

Halong Bay
Catching some rays

Halong Bay
Our luxury boat

Halong Bay
Boat beer

Halong Bay
Trev gets carried away with Karaoke

Halong Bay
The view at night time