Halong Bay

Halong Bay
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Left Hanoi at 7.30am for our 3 hour journey north to Halong Bay on a chockablock mini bus.  The closer we got to the bay the more overcast it became and then about 1 hour away the sky opened and the rain came flooding down.  We originally asked about a trip to the bay 2 days before and all trips were cancelled due to the Chinese Typhoon - looks like it has come back with avengence!  We don't know how our driver managed to find the road as the rains were coming down so hard.  When we finally arrived at Halong City to board our boat it was clear that we were going nowhere at the moment.  We were ushered into a restaurant which was packed with like minded souls like us all sheltering from the rains.  After around 1 hour of waiting our Tour Guide told us we were ready to go - storm was still overhead and fork lightening was still going strong.  We then moved around 200 yards to a new waiting area with no shelter and were told that they could not buy any tickets when it was raining - so we had to wait in the pouring rain with only two recently aquired 'plastic' carrier bag style macs to keep our clothes dry - as you can imagine, there were a few unhappy people by now.

Our Halong Bay Pals!
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Finally around 1 1/2 hours after we first arrived we were ushered onto a lovely old wooden boat which would be our home for the night.  We had a lovely lunch onboard before we were given the OK to leave as the storm had now passed.

captain arrived at our cabin door with a hammer in his hand

Halong Bay, even in the rain is a beautiful place and it was truely worth the wait.  About 1 hour into the journey we stopped at some caves which had been lit with blue, red and green back lights which looked beautiful - very commercialised - we suspected there was not much left of the original caves, but lovely none the less.  The rain was still pouring into the caves which gave them a spooky quality.

Halong Bay at 7am
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After the caves, we then stopped at Cat Ba Island to drop some passengers off and then it was off to our mooring place for the night, a lovely bay.  More and more boats were arriving (apparently there is still some pirates out there so safety in numbers) but the bay was quite big so you still felt like your boat was the only one there.

After a lovely dinner a few of us decided to venture up onto the boats roof (the rain had stopped at this point) with a drink or two - perfect as was so quiet and peaceful and you could now see the stars - wonderful.

Our shoes drying in the sun (from the trek)
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Our cabin onboard was actually very nice which we didn't really expect.  We had been warned of cockroaches and rats but didn't see any of these things.  We had an ensuite bathroom, double bed and fan - no curtains however.  A swift word with the tour guide (alright, a shout in his ear) and the captain arrived at our cabin door with a hammer in his hand??  He then proceeded to nail up the curtains - different.  I will have to do that at home - and problem is sorted.

Halong Bay
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When we opened our cabin door the next morning the view was breathtaking.  The turquoise waters of the bay and the limestone rocks were magical and there is no other sight that could match that.