Halong Bay - Best in S.E. Asia

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Well in my humble, but always offerred opinion. Back safe and sound in Hanoi, apart from the obvious road crossing dangers, after my 2 nights out in Halong Bay, being the last sort of tour/trip of my adventure I'd long hoped for a goody, and thankfully it was, for those thinking of doing it I spent 55 USD with Asia Pacific Travel (APT) and can't reccomend them highly enough.

Left on a minibus on Wednesday Morning, which actually was modern and shiny like in the brochure, a solid new Ford Transit, rather than the usual clapped out Toyota. A smooth ride to Halong City, then 8 of us (they did not lie on the small numbers) got on our boat, with happily cosy cabins, large dining room, and a big sundeck, with padded loungers, most of the other boats had hard seats, many had no sundeck.

If you do Halong Bay don't expect solitude, there are masses of boats out there, and the smell of diesel is ever present, but the sights, amazing, way better than the similar karst formations going on near Krabi in Thailand, and with nearly 2000 islands, thousands of photo opportunitys, I snapped away with glee. Best of all, the water is a colour that can only be described as 'British Racing Green'

The food was plentifull, keep them full, them happy, and all the little activities did not dissapoint, the caves we did were illuminated and massive and certainly beat stumbling round up to my chest in water with a candle in Laos.

Took a swim in the deep water, was not cold, but the current dragged me instantly away from the boat so kicked back in pretty quick. The first night was spent with a couple of beers out on the sundeck comparing notes on Vietnam, there were about 35 other boats in the sheltered bay, but the noise was minimal, and they helped illuminate the sourounding Karsts so was not all bad.

On the second day I was doing the 'Cat Ba' section so joined another boat and there were just four of us, and an excellent young guide, so all good, luckily we got on great.

Had a cycle on an island to a farming village, though not a smoker for some years I could not resist trying some local smoking device(the guide assures me it was LEGAL) Inhaled and spluttered like a 14 year old tyring a Malboro Light for the first time so was the usual source of amusement.

Then had lunch on a table on a beach, with all the trimmings, these guys certainly put on the style, and worked off the lunch by kayaking, went through a cave into a secret lagoon which was the highlight of the day. Later on visited Monkey Island, they only have 20 monkeys, but they were complete bastards, okay I'm a little scared of such creatures. Funnily enought the island rangers were not amused by my suggestion that they shoot the monkeys.

Then a night on Cat Ba island, we went out for some drinks in the main town which resembles Brighton in paradise if you can imagine such a thing. Very glad i did the 'extra' night, as on the second day you get a host of things to do and they get away from the 'armarda' and deep in to the maze of islands, and is only in my case 15 dollar more and rent/food provided so nearly pays for itself.

On Friday it was a slow cruise back to Halong City, then they gave us an impressive 'eat as much as you like' lunch, very clever though, send people back to guesthouses stuffed with food, and they'll give a rosy impression of the tour.

Got back to Hanoi a happy man, not so happy that my guesthouse despite promising did not have a room for me, to be fair they had a room elsewhere and gave me a taxi there, but it was an overpriced dump and too noisy so this morning I went and found a nicer/cheaper place to see out the last 3 nights in Hanoi.

So will be happy to potter for a few more days before the big journey back on Tuesday, no more tours/museums etc, happy to finish on a high with Halong. Will have a few drinks tommorrow night to toast the end of my trip, playing it safe and not doing so on Monday, 18 total hours of flying and hangovers, not a clever idea.

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Photos

Distance
It was a bit cloudy