Halong Bay

After deciding we were going to Vietnam on holiday, Ha Long Bay was the first name on our must visit places. After arriving in Hanoi to find that a typhoon was about to hit and all trips had been cancelled we were pretty disappointed. Fortunately for us, the path of the typhoon changed course at the last minute and after a late booking the night before, we were back on track.

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site. The bay consists of nearly 2,000 limestone karsts rising from the emerald green water.

We drove for about 3 and a half hours North of Hanoi to Halong City, where we joined our boat, the Dragon's Pearl III and set off on our two day cruise around Bai Tu Long Bay, which is a less visited area within the larger Halong Bay site.

The boat had only 11 cabins spread over three decks. Just after we set sail, the crew served what was purported to be lunch, but turned out to be a never ending stream of freshly cooked and very delicious seafood.

After cruising around the bay we stopped at of the islands for a few hours, where we were able to explore one of the famous caves. We also took the opportunity to get out in a couple of kayaks and explore a bit ourselves.

The next morning we stopped at one of the fishing villages, which comprised a handful of floating houses, a shop to sell the cultured pearls and a school. It was quite a humbling experience, to see people living quite happily without  any of life's little luxuries that we take for granted.

Whilst the whole trip was super relaxing and very peaceful, I think Jenny got a bit carried away with the camera. There's no doubt that the scenery was stunning, but once you get home there's only so many pictures of what is essentially just rocks that you can actually look at. Anyway, here's a time lapse video of the boat trip.