Halong Bay

Claire & I after exiting the cave to a wonderful birds eye view of some of the natural beauty of limestone karsts
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After a 5 hour bus trip we arrived in Halong Bay with the heavy sun keeping us in any of the cooler shadows we could find. Hot, humid and sunny. We boarded our junk boat (traditional style boats) and hoped that since there were 13 of us that it wasn't going to be an unlucky trip. It wasn't.

Some of us on the trip were for a 1 night tour, we were on a 2 night tour. One night on the junk boat and one on Cat Ba island - the biggest island in Halong Bay.  As the boat set off, we were flanked and followed by and we ourselves followed other junk boats. While I hoped for us to be alone, it was quite impressive to see the boats drift through the beautiful and seemingly endless scenery of the limestone karsts which emerged from the clear sea below us. Pictures, & pictures - then lunch and then some more pictures. It was pretty impressive.

View from our junk
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We then docked to visit one of the largest caves in the area. Again for size it was impressive. AT the time of visiting there were lots of tourists and we snailed around after each other finding our way to the exit. Once there we were able to look down for the first time at some of the karst around us. Beautiful.

We drifted to another anchoring spot - only minutes from the cave - and here we kayaked for about an hour as the sun set. We ate dinner onboard and some of the tour group decided that since it was such a clear and warm night that they would sleep up on the deck.

Guess why they call it 'Monkey Island'
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The next day, we abruptly said goodbye to most of the group. 5 of us continued towards Cat Ba island - Rebecca (England - teaching for 3 months in a 2 year contract in Ho Chi Minh), Wayne & his mother (Taiwan), Claire & I.

Our next stop was at the south end of Cat Ba island for a cycle - peaceful & relaxing. Then off for a mountain rock climb (normally 'mountain rock climb' in brochures are walks up a path - this was hard & in some sports heart skipping dodgy up steep, jagged rock faces) to a wonderful but quick view of the karst areas on a Monkey island. Finally back to Cat Ba island where we would stay the night.

Limestone karsts surround Halong Bay
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The following day we returned to Halong city, had lunch, stopped briefly as one person realised she did not have her passport which would be useful for her flight later that night (it was located on board a junk boat and would be biked to Hanoi) and finally returned to Hanoi.

Here we were taxied and escorted by a hotel member (by moped - whatelse!?!) to the train station for an overnight train to Hue...