A Year In Indochina: Halong Bay

Today we have been touring the wonderful Halong Bay off the coast of northern Vietnam, designated a world heritage site for its spectacular collection of thousands of karst islands. We began by exploring Lan Ha bay in the area around Cat Ba island, where we were staying, in a fishing boat decked with a table and benches which were all full by the time we arrived at eight in the morning. A mat was laid out for my mum, Crystal and I on the roof of the boat, with a tarpaulin sheet attached overhead to provide a little shelter from the cool air and spitting rain. It was a misty day but the atmosphere this created somehow complimented the majesty of the mysterious giants.

Later we opened out into the larger part of Halong Bay, where unfortunately the water was often polluted with swirls of litter, a regrettable consequence of unregulated mass tourism. The weather became warmer and drier over the day. We paid a visit to a wonderful cave where we marvelled at some great stalactites and stalagmites after squeezing through some unforgiving holes. Later we arrived at a lovely inlet where the boat stopped for lunch to be prepared onboard by the boat's crew. We were served fried fish, morning glory, vegetable spring rolls, squid with pineapple and steamed rice on the boat's roof. The three of us shared this fresh and satisfying meal with a fun British couple who, my mum noticed, probably smoked more fags than took photos over the day but who seemed to be enjoying themselves nonetheless. After being refuelled we hopped onto kayaks for a very peaceful exploration of a turquoise lagoon. A less peaceful moment came when mum and I decided to take a look into the mouth of a cave and found that the cave took a fancy to us and invited us in further. We managed to manoeuvre ourselves around enough that when we hit a low wall in a spookily dark corner we could battle forwards against the current and work our way out. I will point out that we were not the only ones to make this mistake. The oarswoman who took Crystal in a little boat when she opted not to kayak counted the number of people who went into the cave and the number who came out again.

Finally we stopped off at Monkey Island, a beautiful stop that Chris and I had visited on my last trip to Halong Bay, from where lovely photographs can be taken and monkeys heard and occasionally seen. As the three of us had a transport link to Hanoi later in the day, we left the island sooner than the rest of our party and were taken in a tiny fishing boat by an elderly man called up by our boat's crew back to dry land, via an interesting fishing farm community. A member of our boat crew paid this gentleman the sum of 110,000 dong (around £3.50) for his labour and spelled the name of our hotel onto the wooden floor of the boat with a biro. An unknown portion of this money was then handed over from the boat driver to three motorbike drivers who conveniently awaited us at the harbour. They whizzed us over the hill to the town, much to my mum's thrill. "My mother told me never to ride a motorbike", she told me when we arrived. "Mine too," I said.

The remainder of our day was spent on a long journey to Hanoi by bus, boat and bus again. Crystal's copious amount of luggage was moved along with the aid of numerous people at each stage. During the bus journey from Haiphong to Hanoi my mum and I chatted about anything and everything almost non-stop. By the time we arrived at a bus station in the city we were exhausted. A taxi took us to our hotel in the Old Quarter, near the beautiful Hoan Kiem lake, where we have settled down for three nights. Tomorrow we will take Hanoi at leisure.