Halong Bay

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Halong Bay
Waking up to rain pitter patting on the wooden window sills is calming, looking out of the boat window we can see other boats in the bay and its very misty and grey. This gives Halong Bay an eerie feel almost mystical. We have an early breakfast of bacon eggs and toast with freshly made watermelon or peach juice then get on to our tender which takes us to a floating island. We then board a junk and are paddled under an arch way to an inner lake and its there we see the rock monkeys. Throwing cut up banana to them they scampered down the rocks at amazing speed to collect their free breakfast. We then returned for morning coffee and relaxed as the boat made its way out of the bay and back to shore. Just before reaching there we had an early lunch, fresh crab, prawns, beef and pork, vegetables, rice and chips with sculptured apples for dessert. We paid our drinks bill, the first time we have ever paid a million for drinks but then its only a million Dong, about £30 it is difficult to get used to this money.We then leave the boat and make the journey back to Hanoi. All the boats are painted white, they used to be reddy brown but it was decreed all should be painted white and so they have but the quality is not good. It makes the boats look naff when inside they are quite beautiful and polished. It's a long journey back stopping for a few pictures on the way of herb gardens and at the cooperative again where we spend our time looking at the men carving stone and the ladies embroidering tapestries.We rested at the hotel then went out to the puppet show at six. This is performed in a small theatre on water and the puppets tell stories of Vietnam accompanied by beautiful singing and instruments of which we have never seen. It looked as if this beautiful girl were plucking at the air but it is single string and played with a bow that looks like a pregnant woman hence its name.The puppet show was delightful and we left there knowing more about the Vietnamese way of life. We then walked across the traffic to a local restaurant, the experience of walking in the traffic, cars bikes, motorbikes etc was quite unnerving and made me hungry. We ordered a banquet and we weren't sure what to expect, it was a cross between Thai and Chinese. We had a chicken dish with 5 spice, a beef with chilli spice, fried rice, boiled rice, pork in a sauce and aubergine. It was all delicious but I left there feeling a bit hungry, we ate with chopsticks and it was like you couldn't get a mouthful, also it tasted so good, having put on weight in Australia and NZ we could both do with losing some. Exhausted we took a taxi back, so glad we did as it was longer than we thought and I for one didn't feel like negotiating the traffic again.

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Photos

Leaving Halong Bay
View from our boat