So, it started on a great note when we had a lovely air conditioned mini bus from Hanoi all the way to Ha Long Bay with only us and one other couple in!! This is almost unheard of as they normally cram everyone in like sardines. After a very pleasant 4 hour drive we arrived at the pier to catch our boat but ended up waiting for a bit. We finally got onto our correct boat and had a lovely lunch of rice, fish, meat, french fries, and cucumber salad (all meals are included in our 2 night 3 day cruise).
We set sail and cruised along on our lovely old wooden boat out into the bay. Ha Long Bay is a huge area which consists of over 2000 limestone islands jutting up out of the sea. It is absolutely stunning scenery.
There were about 16 people on our tour, most of whom were really nice, especially a lovely family with 2 kids from Ireland that we spent most of our time with.
Our first port of call was a couple of grottoes with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. it was extremely hot so quite nice to be in a cave where it was quite cool. We then headed a bit further afield and visited a floating village. At this point we did some kayaking around some of the islands and the village. This should have been one of the highlights, however, The Foxes were having a few issues (navigational, motivational, and matrimonial!!). It nearly ended in divorce, but after a nice swim in the sea to cool down it was all back to normal.
We then anchored down for the evening and had a lovely dinner of rice, fish, meat, french fries, and cucumber salad (we were starting to see a pattern). People from the floating village row out in small boats and visit the big boats with all of the tourists on selling everything you can think of. We bought a few beers (our Irish friends were the best hagglers finally getting 13 very big beers for about NZ$8). We all sat up on the roof of the boat and had a few drinks. We did not want to be downstairs as firstly our generator was not working so we did not have any power/lights, and then when it finally got going, our guide and the crew were all downstairs singing Vietnamese karaoke which we definitely did not want to be a part of. Up on deck it was an amazing sight with many other boats floating round and a lightning storm happening quite a way away for a couple of hours made it look like fireworks.
We turned in for a pretty early night to our cabin. It was ok, but very hot and a few small cockroaches to keep us company.
The next day we awoke to find that the storm had arrived and it was torrential rain. Tony and I were doing an extra day than everyone else on the boat so we got dropped off at Cat Ba Island which is where were staying in a hotel for the second night. There was a possibility of doing a hike through the jungle, however in our Lonely Planet it said it was a difficult 6 hour trek, and it was pouring with rain. Instead we booked into the hotel and watched our cable TV!! When it had stopped raining we headed out for a lovely lunch on board a floating restaurant. You guessed it, rice, fish, meat, french fries, and damned cucumber salad!!! Our guide was now only for the two of us (he was a bit young and enthusiastic for our liking) and he informed us that the next activity of the day was kayaking. We looked at each other, took a big breath, and got into the kayak. We didn't have to go but due to the previous day's effort we thought we should try again. This time was much better and we had a good look around another floating village with lots of fish farms, pet dogs, and even petrol stations all on the water. We then paddled to a secluded beach where we were the only ones and read our books. It was so nice to actually have a beach all to ourselves.
We eventually headed back to the hotel and had a small wander around town to explore. After dinner (the same as usual!!) we went to our room as we had cable TV and the French Open was on. The next day we headed back on the boat to the mainland and had lunch (Tony didn't hardly eat anything here as he couldn't face it yet again!!), and headed back to Hanoi in the minivan.
Ha Long Bay was absolutely magnificent scenery and we had a great time. After one night in Hanoi we were off to Laos...
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