Halong Bay

We booked a trip to Halong Bay through the hotel...pick up 8 am. W boarded a small bus with a real variety of people on board. Not being too sure of each other there was little interaction during the bus trip - 3 hours of it.

Finally we arrived at Halong bay, boarded out little boat and were told where and when we would be for the next 24 hours... I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive.

The boat took off from the mooring, we were allocated rooms - B1 and I were given the honeymoon suite ( it consisted a double bed sprinkled with rose petals :-)). We then ate, drank and started to mingle with the other passengers - a couple of lone travellers, a young girl couple, a French family with two uni student daughters, a couple in their thirties (who were yet to realise they were a couple!) and a few more. They were all surprisingly good company for the few meals we shared, the dreadful karaoke, the tour of caves, kayaking, unsuccessful squid fishing and generally relaxing while cruising past some amazing sights.

Something like 1969 islands are in the bay - some small, some larger and I can easily see how they could have been mistaken for a dragon plunging through the ocean (supposedly where the name ha long comes from). Small fishing/floating villages shelter in the midst of larger island groupings. The weather was not perfect - a solid cloudy sky meant little reflected sunshine in the water - I can only guess that it would be quite a magnificent sight on such a day, however one could still marvel at the sheer limestone cliffs, caves and landforms that changed as you viewed them from different directions.

Thanks to Richard, M has been taught some magic tricks and wowed those on board producing tricks with his Terracotta soldier card deck. He had everyone on board playing cards or watching tricks, and then was confident enough to approach strangers at the boat terminal, souvenir shop and on the streets of Hanoi.