Halong Bay - 2000 Limestone Islands

Without really planning it, we have been to 4 of the 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Vietnam. Halong Bay has definitely been a highlight. Its beauty - limestone cliffs plunging into the emerald green sea - are awe-inspiring. There are over 2000 islands in the Bay. It was a welcome diversion from the "busyness" of Hanoi but mostly it was a beautiful place and a restful trip.

The port at Halong Bay is a three hour journey from Hanoi - always tough for the kids - more rice fields, industry, lots of motorcycles - hard to gain attention. The good thing was the promise of an overnight journey on a Junk Boat was the ticket at the end of the long hot ride.

The port is complete chaos. There must be 150 boats dropping people off, taking on new passengers, jockeying for tenders. We sailed on the "Asia Cruise" - a good size boat limited to 8 cabins. We were joined by a family from France, a young Vietnamese couple from Danang and some backpackers from the UK and Spain.

The ship left at 1 p.m. and we were treated to a great seafood lunch while we sailed towards the islands. It was quite humid so the islands were hard to see in the distance until we got close to them.
Our first stop was a series of caves that were discovered in the late 1800s.

This was the largest cave that we have ever seen - the pictures show some of what we experienced. They are said to be remnants of the dragons that created Halong Bay.

We went sea kayaking for about 45 minutes afterwards. Erica, Madeline and myself were in one - Kristen and Joshua in the other. Erica and Joshua did a great job and even Madeline had a go but they were "too heavy".

The highlight for the kids came as the sun set over Halong Bay...swimming in the sea and jumping from the top of the boat. The sea was very warm and had a high concentration of salt so we were quite buoyant. Unfortunately one of our fellow passengers was badly stung by a jellyfish but it did not dampen the kids sailing off the boat and having a great swim.





Dinner was great - more seafood and getting to know our fellow shipmates. After the kids went to bed, Kristen and I stayed up and had a few drinks with the "young people" (read: backpackers well under 30 and a couple not yet 20...). They were kind to let us old people stay up with them. When you travel with kids, (maybe this is just us) we find that we too are in bed early so it was a treat to stay up and share company with others over some Vietnamese beer!!

Day Two was really about sailing the bay and returning to port around Noon. The serenity of the Bay disappeared as the many many boats fought (literally) to get close to the port to exchange passengers. Some of our fellow crew members were staying another night but were told that no one was staying on boats in the Bay because of an approaching monsoon. We are grateful to have had the night we did on the boat.

Lunch then another 3 hours back to Hanoi. An unforgettable (albeit) short trip but some great memories of a beautiful spot! Here are more pictures from this 2-day trip: