Halong Bay was such a welcome respite after the trekking in Sapa. It wasn't hard (trekking), but I was definitely glad to have proper hot showers and beds after! Don't ever take them for granted! It was a pretty tiring journey to Halong from Sapa. The train landed in Hanoi in the wee hours of the morning (like 5am) and we did not really have anything to do till our bus left for Halong at 9am. So most people just stayed at the hotel. Iz and I went for a walk around the lake to people watch. Along the way, our guide informed us that the government had recently raised the price for entry to Halong, so be warned... There are many junk boats plying their trade around Halong. Most have like 8 rooms or so, just nice for a small group like us. There is a small crew on board who prepares the meals and rooms and the food was very delicious! They even have a small bar where the local boy will whip up cocktails - they can be quite expensive compared to getting them on the mainland though (US$4) for one cocktail. They were quite potent though.
From the harbour, our junk boat sailed to the middle of Halong Bay where we were treated to endless sights of the picturesque bay. For the curious, Halong Bay means descending dragon bay in Vietnamese. Interestingly, long is also dragon in Chinese. From the deck of the boat, everyone just went picture crazy, taking pictures and just lounging around despite the cool winds and most of us being wrapped up in our jackets.
We spent two days and one night on the boat. The second day we were take to one of the limestone islands/caves to explore - most notably the Grotte des Merveilles as named by the french.One sees alot of the stalagmite formations which the vietnamese have given many names to as many of them resemble creatures eg Dragon, Lion. There's even a structure which many have said leaves much to the imagination (middle picture below).
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| Pictures of me and group just playing around... |
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| Last picture of Halong Bay |
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