Halong Bay
Travel Location: Halong-Bay,Vietnam
So we booked our trip to Halong Bay with the Kangaroo Cafe tour company so that we didn’t get ripped off – we got to the cafe at 7 for breakfast, ate and boarded the minibus at 8. A guy who had also been told to get to the cafe for breakfast thought he was coming with us but had been sold a fake by another operator so didn’t make it – tough luck – it’s a hard city.
There were 13 of us on our boat – a good mix of people from all around the world – all good to be with and together we had a great time.
Another UNESCO world heritage site on our list, it is said that Halong Bay was created centuries ago by a dragon that came to the bay and careered in to the sea at this point, the islands being cut from the rocks as it thrashed in the water – Halong Bay meaning descending dragon.
Reality is a little more dull – the islands are made from limestone rock which has suffered from chemical and river erosion over millions of years, then at the end of the last ice age after the glaciers melted and the sea level rose the area was flooded turning the hills into islands.
Whatever the story, the islands are an impressive and beautiful sight rising out of a very green sea, coloured from the limestone rocks.
There are almost 2000 islands – you could do much longer tours than our overnight stay, but we visited a very beautiful collection and were able to hire kayaks and paddled through a flooded cave called Hang Luon in to the hollow centre of a doughnut shaped island – very cool.
There’s a lot of people who actually live on the water, they mainly fish, but some support the tourist industry by hiring kayaks or rowing around in their floating shops – business is clearly very good – we were in the low season but where we dropped anchor for the evening was busier than the Thames.
The following morning we visited the largest cave in the islands – Hang Hanh. It’s huge – in the region of 10,000 sq meters and extending for 2Kms. Inside there are amazing stalactites and stalagmites – if you use your imagination some look like people and others turtles… and there are others that don’t require much imagination at all…
All in all – a great couple of days in a great location.
