The next morning we bid a temporary farewell to Hanoi as we set off on a three-day trip to Vietnam's famous Ha Long Bay: one of the new seven wonders of the natural world! We had opted for something of a luxury cruise experience to make sure we made the most of it! We were in a group with 12 other people - all of whom seemed like good fun. After a few hours' drive we arrived at the port, boarded our lovely junk boat and set sail!
Ha Long Bay is just spectacular: thousands of huge limestone karsts rising majestically out of emerald green waters. As we reclined on loungers on the roof of the boat, it was definitely one of those "life is good" moments!
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The boats set off across the bay...
(the junks used to be brown but the government has recently had them all painted white - not quite as picturesque!) |
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| Life is good! |
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| Beautiful Halong Bay |
After a couple of hours of cruising through the karsts, passing small floating fishing villages, we moored at Ti Top island and took a walk up to a look-out at the top to admire the view. It was just beautiful. We then had a quick swim in the lovely warm water of the bay.
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| View from above - even more beautiful! |
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| Looking out in awe... |
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| Sandy beach where we swam... |
Next up, was a spot of kayaking over to the nearby Monkey Island. Kayaking isn't exactly one of my strong suits and Annick had never done it before, so we weren't too optimistic about how it was going to turn out. In the end we didn't do too badly though, and it was actually quite good fun. We kayaked through a low tunnel in a karst and emerged in a hidden bay next to the island (where we could also see some monkeys).
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| Yep, we're all over this kayaking malarkey |
That evening we enjoyed a brief cooking lesson (spring rolls - mmm!) and then Happy Hour before dinner. Then a few glasses of wine on the upper deck under the stars, before it was time for bed.
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| Amazing passion-fruit margaritas! |
The next morning we visited Sung Sot cave ("The Surprise Cave") which was a series of three connecting chambers within a karst. The caves were absolutely huge and were full of stalactites and stalagmites - pretty impressive.
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| Sung Sot Cave |
It was then time to bid farewell to most of our group, who had only booked a two-day cruise. With just six of us remaining, and on a smaller boat this time, we set off for Lan Ha Bay, a little bit further South. This offers the same spectacular scenery as Halong Bay but with far fewer tourists - in fact we hardly saw any other boats all day.
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| Lan Ha Bay |
We enjoyed some more kayaking here and although we had a few more collisions in the tunnels this time, it was even more impressive than the previous day as we really were the only people, in another secluded cove. Later we moored up alongside a beautiful beach, for lunch. A couple of the others swam to the shore but Annick and I preferred to sunbathe on the boat - there were too many jellyfish in the water!
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| Our lunch spot |
We spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and sunbathing on deck as we cruised through the karsts. Later we visited a fishing village and a pearl farm before returning to the bigger boat where we joined up with a new tour group who were on the first day of their two-day trip. We had a quieter night this time (apart from a small bout of shrieking when the world's biggest cockroach scurried across our bedroom wall).
The next morning there was just enough time for some more relaxation on deck while our new group went to visit the caves. Before we knew it, it was time to cruise back to shore and return to Hanoi! Knowing how popular Ha Long Bay is, I had been worried that it would be really over-crowded and touristy but it didn't feel that way at all. It was really spectacular and we had a really nice and relaxing few days!
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| All Smiles, at Ha Long Bay |
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