Ahoy stunning (but cold!) Ha Long Bay

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Ha Long Bay is about 3 hours from Hanoi, and a popular tourist activity is to take a Junk Boat cruise on the Bay. We opted for two nights aboard the Bhaya Classic 4. Theweather was the coldest we’ve experienced on the trip, but the misty low hanging clouds provided a beautiful, if not ominous backdrop as we meandered on the calm waters zig zagging between tall karsts (rock formations) in the bay.

Ha Long Bay means literally: "descending dragon bay" and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province. Ha Long Bay has an area of around 1,553 km², including 1,960–2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the bay has an area of 334 km² with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate.

There were many boats in the bay, and we were happy with our small-scale (15 cabins) new and comfortable boat. We were met on board with a welcome beverage and hot towels for our hands. We then went to Bai Tu Long Bay and visited a small fishing village via rowboat, where Kostek enjoyed a pickup game of soccer with the little boys. We then met Daniel and Floris, a really nice couple from Berlin at happy hour. We enjoyed hearing about their travels to date, and all the tips they had for the next day’s journey (it was their second day on the boat trip). We enjoyed a really nice dinner and at the end the cruise director called a few guests up from the tables to announce and celebrate Natasha and Damian’s recent engagement. The couple lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the cruise director selected people from all different countries – Australia, Belgium, Austria, France, etc. to celebrate; it was a very international boat!

The next day I tried Tai Chi on the sundeck, unfortunately it was raining so we had to cancel it. Still I was proud that I got up in time for the 6:15 am start. We then transferred to a smaller Bhaya boat where we cruised Lan Ha Bay. We went on a bicycle tour through the countryside and a small village, the views were impressive. It was cold a misty, after last two months in 30C+ weather we almost forgot what cold means! We then went kayaking at Three Peach Beach, with beautiful turquoise waters, where we kayaked through a tunnel under a karst mountain. We didn’t let the rain get us down; we met a group of 8 friends from Canberra, Australia and had a great time as they taught us the Vietnamese card game ‘13’. After the day of touring we went back to our boat and had a nice dinner. This time celebrating one of the Canberra group’s birthdays.

On our final morning on the cruise we explored Sung Sot (Surprise Cave). It was quite large and well-lit, with many stalactites and stalagmites. We were sent off with a nice brunch and are now on the van transfer back to Hanoi.

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Comments

[Mom]

Beautiful!
Enjoy! We miss you, but live vicariously through you!