Halong Bay

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Day 3 and 4 staying in Hanoi were our favourites - because of our overnight tour to Halong Bay - one of the world heritage sites. The weather had not been great for the first few days in Vietnam so we weren't expecting to have any sun in Halong Bay - but we had plenty.



The boat was fantastic quality - we had cabins with ensuite bathrooms (of course all had spectacular views over halong Bay). We had been expecting the next step up from a dinghy from some of the reviews (or horror stories) we had read on the internet about rats on boats etc, but our boat was brilliant. We had several delicious meals on board, with fish, noodles, fruits...all very yummy.



We sailed out from Halong City at midday and admired the view for the 2 hours it took us to get to our first destination. The limestone cliffs reminded us a little of Krabi in Thailand - they create a spectacular backdrop with all the turquoise waters and beautiful wooden boats with their traditional Vietnamese style sails. I could see why the Vietnamese were fighting so hard to make Halong Bay one of the seven modern wonders of the world.



In the afternoon we arrived at Suprise Cave, our first destination. It was the most amazing cave I have ever seen. It is vast with stallegtites and stallegmites in limestone - all lit up with different colours for effect. You can also make out shapes in the limestone - a monkey, a turtle, a man and women (it looks so realistic)...



After the cave we did some kayaking just as the sun was setting - this was a real highlight of the trip. The sun was a brilliant red circle and it was framed by two mountains. We sat for about 20 minutes in our kayak still on the water just watching it go down. So beautiful.



In the evening - the entertainment started. Drinking and kareoke (yes kareoke!!!). Of course everyone started off quite reserved but it didn't take long for the microphone to become much sought after (I even did a song myself - well everyone did!). Things really started getting funny when the vietnamese joined us and brought whisky with them (the biggest bottle I have ever seen in my life!) - their rendition of "Hello" by lionel richie had us all in stitches.



The downside to this was sore heads in the morning - but we had to get up early to have breakfast and sail back. By now we had made really good friends with the other people on board (a mixture of Australians, Americans and English (Ipswichians actually - quite spooky). We all exchanged numbers and emails - a few of us agreed to meet up in Australia for a re-run! I would highly recommend this tour - it is well worth the money and the memories are priceless.

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