Ha Long Bay

After much, much searching t'internet for non-shonky Ha Long Bay tour operators (didn't fancy Cockroaches and Rats as fellow shipmates) we picked a company to go on a Junk, have a tour round the bay, go swimming and kayaking and sleep over on the boat before more swimming and touring back to the mainland.

Ha Long Bay (which means Descending Dragon apparently) has nearly 2000 limestone islands. It's an incredible area (if you remember 'The Man With The Golden Gun' , a Moore Bond, then Scaramanga's lair is in Ha Long Bay). There were 11 people on the tour in total, who were all a great laugh (which is good as people seem a bit wary in Hanoi in general) - plus the four crew, our guide and the ships cat. Well I say Cat, she's a 2 month old Kitten and very cute, if very loud and annoying at times.

We were taken to 'Surprising Cave' which, although not very surprising as it's a cave - is very impressive. It must go back about 400/500 metres. We then sailed to a secluded bit of the bay to do some Kayaking - and no we didn't capsize. We did manage to fit through a small cave in one of the rock walls which led through to a lagoon. It's completely cut off from any other form of access and was absolutely astounding. We heard monkeys in the jungle above us but didn't actually see any.

Some Stats

Junk kittens befriended - 1
Number of swims in the Bay of Tonkin, South China Sea - 2
Number of capsized kayakers rescued - 0 (would like to say 2 but someone else got there first)



Towards the not very surprising cave



On one of the islands



Oooo arty! - And yes, I did take that