Halong Bay
Travel Location: Halong-Bay,Vietnam
It took about three hours in a mini bus to get to Halong Bay from Hanoi.
Within Halong Bay there are almost two thousand small islands dotted as far as the eye can see. Folklore says that a family of dragons once came to Halong Bay to protect the Vietnamese people from invasion and that the islands are formed from the jewels and pearls that they spat from their mouths as they arrived. However, the real reason why the islands are formed is because millions of years ago the sea level was much higher and coral grew in the sea. As the sea level dropped the coral died and became the limestone rock that we see today.
Because the bay is so big we booked on to a boat and sailed around the bay to see the different shaped rocks, some caves and the fishermen and people that live on the water in their floating houses and villages.
We hired a kayak so that we could paddle through a tunnel and in to a piece of water that was completely surrounded by rocks, it was very peaceful in their hiding away from all the other boats and people.
We stayed on the boat over night so that we could visit the largest cave in Halong Bay, early in the morning. This cave is over 10,000 sq feet in size and looked huge with really large Stalactites hanging from the ceiling and Stalagmites growing from the floor almost touching the ceiling.
While we were on the boat we were visited by small boats selling food and drinks, just like the corner shops at home. Because people live in floating houses their shops are boats that they row to parked boats. There are also floating fish farms and places where you can even sit in and have a beer – just like a pub!
