Halong Bay

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Hi Home,

We have just got back to Hanoi after an incredible 3 days in Halong Bay- which has just been made one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!

After a 3 hour bus journey we boarded our pirate ship and sailed into the stunning bay. There are over 1000 limestone karst hills and we weaved our way between them until we came to Hang Sung Sot or Suprise Cave- this name will become apparent when you study the pictures below! It was made up of three vast chambers that were all lit up and we spent a while walking through them all and trying to identify pictures in the rock including Romeo and Juliet, as well as stroking the lucky turtle!

We then jumped into a kayak and splashed around some of the near-by islands as the sun was setting,before spending a night on board the boat. After a fishy supper, our evening activities included a very poor attempt at squid fishing where I managed to catch one of the mooring lines and Jenny got her line attached to my shoulder!

On Friday we moved to Cat Ba Island which is the largest island in Halong Bay with a population of 10,000. It is also home to a rare breed of monkey which can only be found on this island and whose population is only 60. From here, we hired bikes and cycled through the evergreen tropical forect for about an hour to Viet Hai Village. This was somewhat surreal as there is a real mixture of old and new as orginal mudhuts are still being used for storage but thanks to tourism over the last decade, everybody now lives in stone houses with massive satellite dishes outside!

After this excursion we sailed to another island to stay for the night in a 'bungalow' on high stilts over the water. It was very beautiful and as the tide was out we were able to wade across to a near-by beach as well as leave a message in the sand for Andy...

After a BBQ supper we went to bed at the wild hour of 2100 but for some reason I was unable to sleep past 0300 this morning so sat and watched the sunrise over Halong Bay which was gorgeous.

After breakfast we returned to the boat and had a mini cookery course on how to make Hanoi spring rolls.

We arrived back into Halong City port and boarded the bus back to Hanoi. When we arrived back we took a while to find somewhere to stay and must have visited at least 4 hotels and asked to see the rooms before walking away at the sight of them! Luckily we have now got somewhere to stay and have just been out for a traditional supper where we sat and planned the rest of our travelling route.

In an attempt to avoid the flooding in central Vietnam, we have decided to move into Laos early. From tomorrow, we will be moving south to Cuc Phong National Park which has both a monkey and turtle conservation centre and lots of opportunities for hiking We are planning on staying there until Tuesday before starting the very long bus journey into Laos.

After working out everywhere we would like to visit and how much time we have, we have suddenly realsied that we are going to have to move quickly to get it all in!

Anyway, we will let you know how we get on at the national park.

Thanks for reading our blog!

We hope all is well back home,

Lots of love,

Izzie and Jenny

xxxxxxx

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