" Hello Halong!"

Heading out
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On Sunday we set off for a one night adventure in Halong Bay. This area is about 3 hours from Hanoi's craziness and a world away in terms of pace. We got onboard our 'Junk' (Vietnamese for cruise) and kicked back into a life of luxury. The service was nothing short of amazing as we were treated to a 10 course meal of crabs, prawns, soup, squid etc etc. We certainly weren't expecting this kind of welcome on a GAP tour and even Augusto, our tour leader, had to check to make sure we were on the right boat.

Nick and about to be eaten crab
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Halong Bay itself is a stretch of water with about 1900 limestone islands that look like mini mountains in the middle of the sea. These are uninhabited in themselves but there are communities that live on floating pontoons near some of the islands. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and we were lucky to have clear skies and good air-con to cope with the 40 degree heat.

There was one rather phallic rock formation that he didn't (need to) explain...but we thought that was rather suprising in itself!

Halong bay
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So we cruised off passing formations that the Vietnamese liken to creatures, for example the 'Two Cocks Fighting' formation. Some of these with a delve into the imagination you could see and others not, but is was good fun trying. Our first stop was at the 'Surprising' caves so named as the discoverer got a bit of a shock when he found them. They consisted of three caverns starting at biggish and quite impressive and then building to gigantic i.e big enough for about 1,000 people. There was again many formations to see and compare to bears, crocs, pretty girls faces, old man etc, etc. We were laughing at our guide, Choung's, sense of imagination and thought that he was probably making most of them up himself! There was one rather phallic rock formation that he didn't (need to) explain...but we thought that was rather suprising in itself!

Amazing formations
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From there it was off to another island which had a beach and 400 steps leading to a great viewpoint, apparently Ho Chi Minh himself was helicoptered there, again some lovely views admired.

Back on board and we moored up for the night, got some more swimming in (diving from top of the boat for the boys - showing off!)and revved up for another 10 courses of excellent food, wine and a few games with the group of 10,000 (dice game).

Today (Monday) we had time to go into a hollowed out lagoon in the middle of an island that is only accessable at low tide and try to spot monkeys. It was breath-taking as we were surrounded by limestone, palms and frangipani trees. It was so quiet and peaceful, just the sound of the birds and cicadas. Didn't get much luck with monkey spotting, but back on board we had a last swimming and bombing chance before coming back to the port and then Hanoi. Tonight we have a night train to Hue which could be a bit rough (maybe no air-con!), but the last few days have more than made up for that!