Vietnam - Halong Bay

Halong Bay - The reason to go to north Vietnam for a lot of people

Recently completed bridge linking the 2 areas of Halong, making everyone's life a lot easier - except perhaps the old ferry's captain

We stayed overnight in the bay on a junk boat

Paul thought he'd get into the swing of things by growing a beard

The boat we had was called Fantasea, which worried me at first....

The area covers over 1500km squared and has just under 2000 limestone karsts sticking out of the water

The name 'Halong', means 'Descending Dragon', probably because of the mist that often descends, making it a bit spooky at times

This is what a junk boat looks like, and there are literally hundreds around the bay

There are people who permanently live on the water in floating houses

Some of the islets have caves within them.  One, called Hang Sung Sot was discovered by the French and being the lyrical genuises that they are, means Astonishing Cave

To be fair, it is pretty amazing

It's a proper cave tour with lights and a walkway, not like Laos

The rock and water have created many different shapes

Some harder than others......

This reminded me of an old organ (yes I have put this on the correct picture!)

It's pretty big too, although there is a bigger one in the area, this being the better to visit we're told

The caves were used as living quarters and even maternity hospital, during many wars that have blighted the area, including with the Chinese and Americans

It's one of the busier places in Halong, which isn't astonishing

One of the more traditional ways of navigating the bay

Night came and we dropped anchor for the night allowing people to swim.  Paul jumped off the top of the boat into the water, much braver than I.

Morning came and after getting stuck on a sandbank, had some more delicious food and slowly mosied our way back to Halong City

The views on the way back were even better than the day before, helped by the sun

It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the north of Vietnam

The water isn't that deep in places and low tide presents sandbanks that weren't there hours before

More houses, not a bad view from your living room.  They even had dogs barking away at each other.