Halong Bay

Sunday March 3rd, 2013 Hanoi
On Friday morning a mini bus picked us up at our hotel for the 3 1/2 hour drive to Halong Bay. It was  a fairly uneventful ride with one stop at a shop for handicapped artisans who made some beautiful crafts and marble statues. We didn't buy a statue though.

 There were lots of small tourist boats at Halong Bay. We had picked a company, Indochina Junk, and a boat, the Dragon's Pearl 3, that went to a less touristy part of the bay, which turned out to be a good choice.

 Our cabin had the right window on top floor at the back of the boat.

 Our room was very nice with ensuite bathroom.

Halong Bay has 1,900 islands in a UNESCO World Heritage park and another 1,000 islands outside the park.

We stopped at one island and climbed up to a cave above the beach.

 From the beach, we went kayaking between the islands for about an hour.

 Then we enjoyed the beach for a while before going back to the boat.

As we cruised to our night moorage about 20 km from shore, the sunset over Halong Bay was magnificent.

 At dinner, the captain gave all the ladies roses in honour of International Women's Day, which is celebrated more in Vietnam than at home.

 We had a fantastic dinner. All the food was great and we couldn't have been treated better.

There were 18 guests on our boat and 14 staff who did an excellent job. Everything was first class.

 The next morning we cruised on between hundreds of islands.

 We stopped at a floating fishing village where fishermen came out with rowboats and rowed us in to see it.

 It was Saturday so the school was empty. Anita got up to the blackboard just for old times sake.

 This is the floating school from outside. A teacher comes from Halong Bay from Monday to Friday and teaches children up to 12 years old.

Anita checked a few notebooks and was amazed at the neat penmanship. They don't have much in the way of resources but they make good use of what they have.

 As we left the village, we were rowed under a hole in one of the islands. All of these limestone islands, caves and passages are unique in the world, I believe, and unbelievably beautiful.It's almost surreal, being here. So far, Angkor Wat and Halong Bay have been 2 highlights of our trip that we're very glad that we got a chance to see. There have been a lot of highlights in 10 weeks of travel here but those 2 stand out. They're both overwhelming and, in our opinion, should not be missed by anyone traveling in southeast Asia. Everyone on our boat just kept snapping pictures and staring at the beauty all around us. Everyone spoke very quietly, we were all so awestruck.

 The island that we rowed under from afar.

 We also stopped at an floating oyster farm where they put a little bit of sand or shell into the oysters and grow pearls.

 Back on the ship we had another beautiful lunch on the open deck as we cruised back to port. We landed about noon, got to our mini buses and headed back to Hanoi. Luckily, we were with 3 Australians and 2 English women who had been on our boat and were lots of fun, so the trip back to Hanoi wasn't as gruelling as it could have been.

There are lots of rice fields along the Red River delta going back toward Hanoi. It's planting season here so sometimes there were at least 100 people in sight in the fields, all ankle deep in water, planting small rice plants. It looks like a lot of hard work.
We came back to the same hotel and were warmly greeted by the staff. They're all young and very eager to please. We couldn't be treated any better. After dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away, we went to bed early, really tired from all the touring.
This morning, we have another 1/2 hour until check-out. We can leave our bags here for the day and wander around town and eventually get dinner. This evening, we'll get our bags and taxi to the train station to catch our night train to Lao Cai, about a 9 hour trip to the northwest. Lao Cai is only a few km from China. We can catch a shuttle bus for the hour drive to Sapa at about 6 am, get breakfast in our hotel and then we're going on a hiking tour of the area with a local guide. It's nice to have this morning to re-organize because tonight and tomorrow will be busy.