Unforgettable Halong Bay

We bought our ticket for halong Bay from the tour agent in our hotel who did our washing and then I am later to discover my red singlet missing. Pissed off. We bought a $50 luxury ticket rather than the $38 basic ticket. We stay in a 3 star hotel on Cat Ba Island, see monkeys on Monkey Island, go kayaking and sleep on the boat.

Today we borded our Junk and sailed into the floggy haze over Halong Bay.The bay has an errie feeling, a sorta 'priates of the carribean' feel with the hundreds of other Junk boats cruising by.
Halong Bay was just breathtaking, the tourist offices say its 'The jewel of North Vietnam', and everything the guidebooks said it would be.

We never realised just how massive and beautiful Halong Bay is. It seemed never ending. Halong" translates into "where the dragon descends into the sea and there are hundreds of ghostly islands that look like they are floating on top of the calm bay, the edges have eroded away with the tides creating little caves to the otherside. Halong Bay is world heritage listed and now I can see why.

After a relaxing sail, we stopped to admire one of the many limestone caves in the area. The caves have a bumpy mattress effect on the roof where the water had been dripping for many years and there are some very amusing rock formations of a budda, a turtle, jesus and yes, even a penis. (he he)

The afternoon was spent kayaking in these beautiful waters ...The kayaking was it highlight of the day and I'm really anoyed that I have used up all my photo memory because words just cannot describe it.

Our guide asked us if we could swim then sent us out into the waters and told us not to get lost. Meanwhile other professional looking groups with guides and life jackets purposely weaved their way through the islands off to somewhere special. Its just funny really, I´m not complaining, thats the way we like it (tours not for us) We followed the other group some of the way paddling though the floating villages, the water warmish and the weather had cleared. Sam spotted a little cave under a small island and with his excellent steering technique we made it through without bashing the sides. Inside the cave was dark and echoie and the water the most beautiful emerald green. On the other side we were surprised to find a gorgeous secluded beach where we trod on oyster shells, examined a piece of foam stuck in the rock and re-enacted a 'Wilson' sceen. It was so private and I wonder how many 'The Beach' type places exist out here in Halong Bay.

The Junks are all wooden traditional boats with enormous sweeping burnt orange sails. The sleeping berths are along the bottom of the boat, the restuarant on the second level and the open air deck on the 3rd where you just sit back with your beer and watch the thin mist settle on the bay in the lazy afternoon. I rest my legs on the deckchair while enjoying the view. Ahh, if only everyday could be like this …

After visiting the caves the boat churned along towards Cat Ba Island. Suprisingly it took 2 1/2 hours. As we started to sail into choppy waters I spent half of that 2 1/s hours turning blue and resisting chucking over the edge.