Ha Long Bay

Thursday 8th March

We started bright and early today to ensure we got a good breakfast in before heading off to Ha Long Bay.  When we went to check out of the hotel, the nice man behind the desk presented me with a gift for International Women’s Day which is celebrated widely in Vietnam.  The gift turned out to be a little Vietnamese lady figurine.  I had been admiring these in the souvenir shops but hadn’t yet bought one so I was very pleased to receive this memento of our trip.  Our next pleasant experience was being told not to bother to settle up for the mini bar and laundry expenses yet as we’ll be back at the hotel tomorrow night.  Nice to be trusted!

Dance lessons by Hoan Kiem Lake

We took a taxi to Kangaroo Café to meet with our other Ha Long Bay travelling companions, first nipping around to the ATM again to draw out a few more million dong.  Once all had arrived and formalities were completed, we boarded the bus to Ha Long.  The bus ride took about 4 hours and included a stop in a complex where marble statues, laquerware and various souvenirs were sold.  We passed by many areas of rice paddies being worked by men and women in conical hats.  In most cases cattle were used for pulling the ploughs through the paddies but we also saw a few mechanical ploughs.

Rice paddies on the way to Ha Long Bay

We arrived in Ha Long around lunch time and boarded our tour boat.  Due to some recent incidents with dodgy boat operators, it is now a requirement that all tour boats must be painted white.  Some of the operators haven't got around to it yet, so there are still some of the lovely brown boats in action, but soon they will all be white.

Our tour boat

Drink seller plying her trade (one of many)

After settling into our cabins we sat down to a lovely lunch and then motored off in the little tender boat to Ti Top Island. 

Ti Top Island - you want us to climb up there?!

Apparently (although I didn’t count them) there are 420 steps from the bottom to the top of the island.  All of our tour group made it to the top, where we had a wonderful view of the bay and took loads of photographs. 

Warning to old geezers

We made it!

Wow!

Nice spot for a game of soccer!

Ha Long Bay is quite similar in many ways to the Goto Islands in Japan – except we had the Goto Islands almost to ourselves and we’re sharing Ha Long Bay with hundreds of other tour boats.  The tender took us all back to the boat where we sat on the deck and chatted with our fellow travellers until dinner was ready.  We are travelling with Australian, English, German and Dutch folk and we’ve all enjoyed swapping our travel stories.

Dinner was fantastic and I don’t think I’ll need any more food for the next month or two!

Admiring the artistic vegetable decorations

We went back up on deck for another chat and a view of all the lit-up boats until we got a bit too cold. We’re off to visit a cave tomorrow, so we had an early night so we’re fighting fit in the morning.