If ever you are in Vietnam you must spend a night on a cruise boat in Halong Bay. It is easy enough to get a bus from Hanoi to the port. After the initial chaos of getting from the land to your boat, everything takes a much slower pace if life.
You sail between the karst formations, folded finely grained limestone, created about 300 million years ago, shaped when water dissolves layers of soluble bedrock.
A far more interesting version of its creation is found here:
http://www.halongbay.info/news/the-legend-of-halong-bay.html
Halong literally means “descending dragon” The Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon and her children descending on earth to help ancient Vietnamese people defend the country. When the enemies attacked they pelted them with fire and emeralds and formed an invincible wall and the northern invaders were swept away and peace ensued. After the battle the mother dragon and children stayed on Earth, becoming human and helped with working the land. This deepens the theory that the Vietnamese people are descended from dragons. After 1000s of years the wall turned into all the isles and islands we sailed through.
After an enormous lunch where the food and the beer kept coming, we were then told we were going kayaking to a deserted beach then having a swim……
My roomie Allison and I shared a kayak as we did 12 months ago in Thailand, easy, we can do this! Our only misadventure was the splitting of my elephant shorts when getting out!
Getting into the kayak was our first achievement, following the others was not quite so easy.
Getting into the kayak, easy!
How easy is it to go in a straight line? Not as easy as we remembered, we could do 360° in seconds and we even managed to go and look at the karsts at very close quarters on more than one occasion.
We made it to the beach eventually and joined in the swimming.
Our lovely captain threw us beers out into the water to help us with our intense game of frisbee. A little boy from a nearby boat joined us in our game. It was a great skill swimming back into your depth resting the beercan on the frisbee without spilling it. Swimming costume straps are also great places to put your empties to save getting out of the water.
No pressure, but the sunset was calling us from behind a couple of the islands, so back into the kayaks to round the islands to head towards the best view of the sunset in Vietnam. It wasn’t waiting for us!
Once again, turning left and right, 180° this time( can we get there backwards?)we made it to the designated spot in time. Words cannot express the magical moment watching the sunset before us.
Perfect place for a sunset
Dancing with the captain
The evening brought even more food, a bit of fishing for squids and an impromptu disco using music from our phones. The less said about the disco the better!
Unsuccessful squid fishing
The following morning saw us up on deck early for some tai chi, before heading out to visit a cave on one of the islands.
Stalagtites in the cave.
The cave was stunning, however at one point became very crowded, which spoilt the atmosphere somewhat.
Back to the boat to watch the chef carve the beautiful vegetable carvings we were served up with our food. We then created our own fresh spring rolls with rice paper.
With a heavy heart, we left the most amazing area of outstanding natural beauty I have ever seen…..to head to our next adventure.
Seriously, this area is a must if you are travelling.
Rambling With Ruthie 