Monday, 10 March 2014

Halong Bay - Vietnam

Halong Bay – Vietnam
10th March 2014


Today we woke up at 6.00am and opened the curtains to find we were sailing by some of the three thousand Halong Bay islands.  It was a quite misty and wet day, but hey we were in Vietnam. 


After breakfast we boarded our junk, which came alongside the ship for our cruise around the islands.  No sooner had we left the ship the local tradesmen cam alongside to try and sell their wares, using their children to tug at your heart strings. 


After a half hour journey through the mist we caught sight of the first island, before arriving at the Thien Bung and Dau Go Caves, where we got off the junk and climbed up 100 slippery steps to a small gap in the rocks to enter the caves.


We were absolutely amazed at what we saw when entering the cave – it was a huge cavern full of architectural stalagmites and stalagtites, all lit up with different coloured spotlights, making the overall effect quite magical.  We wandered through the caves for about forty five minutes before exiting the other side of the island, where our junk was waiting for us.


We set off and meandered through the islands passing a floating fishing village.  Although the weather was still overcast and misty this did not detract from the beautiful sights we saw.


On returning to the ship we had a quick lunch before getting on the tender to go ashore to the dreaded local market place, and yes you guessed it we came away with two bags of local produce.  (probably made in China).

1 comment:

Andy said...

Your last picture on this post is on one of the dong notes, I forget which one.