Halong Bay

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Some of the most beautiful scenery we've seen so far on our travels. 3000 limestone islands rise up out of the bay, creating a very perfect, living postcard.
To get out there we did something we generally don't do and joined a tour. There really isn't any other way else to do it. It was actually quite relaxing being taken around and not have to worry about getting food, accomodation or deciding where to go. Using Hanoi's only foreign owned (Aussie) operators, we shared our huge boat with only 4 other couples, who were a really good group of people, which made it a lot more fun.

We were taken out of the city by bus to the coast, and hopped on our boat. We sailed through the islands and were kept busy trying to take in all of the view! (We hope the photos can describe a fraction of the beauty.) On the boat we mostly relaxed, and lay around on the deck. In the afternoon on day one, we had the chance to swim after the boat took us into a bay shared only with a pearl farm. It was quite fantastic being able to dive more than 5m off the top deck into the cool turqouse water. After drying off and helping ourselves to a beer from the bar, it was back to sailing to our overnight anchorage through one of the most amazing twilights ever.

It was suprisingly spacious onboard, each couple had their own bedroom and bathroom on the first floor then a huge dining room on the second. It seem rather extravigant especially when we had such a small group of only ten people. We were served dinner on the boat, lots of fresh seafood. I (Kate) was lucky(?) enough have vegetarian seafood. Now, it has been a while since I've tasted prawns but from memory its not quite like chewing on an elastic band, not entirely appealing. But the rest was very good. I think they served the same amount of food to the 40 or 50 people who go out on oneday tours!

We weren't so lucky on the second day with the weather. We were woken up very early in the morning by extremely loud claps of thunder. I was just slightly nervous. The rain cleared up in time for our trip out to one of the more secluded island caves, just off the larger Cat Ba island. To get there we took a bus, which broke down, and a small roof-less boat. The caves were amazing inside, still very much untouched by tourists and its usual inhabitants were bats. When we emerged we discovered that the rain had started up again, so we waited it out back in the cave. Being the start of the typhoon season, meant the rain was quite heavy and did not let up. So we had to make a run for it. Many of the boys in the group opted to take off their t-shirts to wrap up their digital cameras. Then a long trip back sitting in the rain in the boat, then on to the bus which broke down a second time on the way back! But everyone was in good spirits and we were able to laugh about it. That night we stayed at a hotel on Cat Ba, so we quickly changed our clothes and caught another boat to go and visit Monkey Island. As the name suggests there are monkeys there, as well as a nice beach. But once we got there it was still raining which meant the monkeys were all hiding.

Our tour finished on the next day, and we got our old boat back to take us to the coast. It was still quite cold but being the last chance for a swim, everyone jumped in the water for the last time. Most of us even did the huge jump from off the top of the boat (I can proudly say that included me - Kate!). Despite some nasty weather we really enjoyed our little trip. And were quite sad to leave the comfort of our boat. The best part was the price. Seemingly expensive there, since arriving in London we've spent more just on London food in a single day!

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