Straight after returning to Hanoi from our Sapa trip, we got immediately onto another tour - to Halong Bay. 3 Hours from Hanoi, Halong City itself is a bit of a dump, and the port is teeming with dozens of boats and hundreds of tourists. Luckily we got straight onto our boat, and set straight off into the bay, which is so huge we immediately got away from the crowds.
As you can see we were pretty well wrapped up as it was cool and overcast - not the best weather for viewing the limestone Karsts that we'd hoped for.
The boat itself was lovely - a recently restored/updated junk, which was well fitted out, and perfect for our overnight stay in the bay.
Although the sails were just for show, they still looked great!
An unexpected part of our tour was the afternoon visit to the cave ('hmmm... cold, dark and wet, probably' we thought to ourselves). We were astonished when we actually got inside to see it:
[Errr... Hazel - Halloween was back on October 31st. Please take your mask off now!]
We thought it was reminiscent of the set from a sci-fi film - all crazy colours lit up the cave wonderfully. Haze thought this part of the cave was like being under a giant mushroom:
Whereas this reminded her of something else entirely:
Yes, those are people in the bottom-left of the picture below, just to give you an idea of the scale!
Just amazing.
Here's the view from the mouth of the cave, overlooking some of the boats that gather outside:
The sun came out just before sunset, as we went out in kayaks.
On our return, we were treated to a splendid sunset:
After dinner, we (the tourists) were cajoled into doing karaoke - putting us both well out of our comfort zone!
You realise, it was all for the benefit of the little girl in the middle here - nothing to do with the booze that was on offer!
Watching night fall from the window of our room was very peaceful.
Goodnight!
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