We travelled by bus to Halong for our overnight cruise on Halong Bay.
The drive to Halong Marina was an experience with many situations where we were overtaking buses, semi trailers, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and people, whilst also being overtaken ourselves taking up 4 lanes of traffic going one direction on a 2 lane road - sometimes around corners.
Our boat for the voyage was a type of wooden junk but quite luxurious. Once we were on-board we were advised by the tour guide that due to a tropical typhoon forecast for that evening, the boat wouldn't be doing the overnight trip. No alternative accomodation was organised and we were in a mad rush trying to contact our booking agent to try and get back to Hanoi that evening - a 4 hour trip. At this point we were already some distance out from the Marina on our way for an afternoon cruise. Luckily the forecast was amended and the original plan was put back in place.
Halong Bay is one of the seven natural wonders of the world and comprises an area of 1550 square kilometres with approximately 2000 small islands. It is a beautiful area but heavily visited by tourists. I would estimate that over a hundred boats worked the area every day but shared the waterway with the local fisherman and their families who usually lived on their boats and in floating villages.
We had a guided tour of some natural caves on one of the islands(along with hundreds of other people) and just before we got back on our boat we saw a local selling all types of goods from her small boat almost like a supermarket. We were then taken to a small beach for a swim before heading back to our boat which was moored in a bay for the evening. While sitting on the deck with drinks, several locals paddled over and offered all sorts of products from their boats using a small fishing net on a pole to transfer money and goods between you and them. Small children were also with them helping out.
Mel had her birthday on the boat and was suprised with a lovely birthday sponge cake supplied by the tour organisers and everybody singing happy birthday to her.
We got up early the next morning to watch the sun rise and do tai chi before breakfast. After the meal we cruised back to the marina and has a cooking demonstration on board making spring rolls. A full course lunch (including the spring rolls) on board (we were as full as a fat lady's sock) and then transfer off the boat back to the marina for our journey back to Hanoi.
Everyone was exhausted and some were able to sleep comfortably in the mini bus back to the hotel.
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