Tuesday 8 October
Today is a catch up for Monday and Tuesday as we left for Ha Long Bay yesterday, stayed overnight on the boat and returned to Hanoi today.
Halong was much prettier than I imagined as although there were certainly lots of boats out and about they generally didn’t cause many problems and floated past reasonably quietly. We travelled through the Bay for about an hour before mooring and then took the transfer boat out to various locations (e.g. a huge cave complex in an adjacent cove, a lagoon nearby where David and Patrice went kayaking, a nearby island where some of the group went swimming.). We started the cruise with a lunch on board the boat which was both delicious and relaxing.
We then headed to the bay itself and moored, before transferring to the cave complex which involved a hike up a reasonable set of steps into the caves, a walk through the three chambers of the cave (of varying size) and then a hike back up the steps to get out of the cave, and down again to the harbour!! Despite the temperatures being a bit cooler and the presence of a breeze, most people looked fairly sweaty by the time they emerged. A large monkey was present at the point where our transfer boat was located and didn’t seem too fazed by the attention he was getting.
Then it was back to the main boat or off to the lagoon (depending on which option you chose) followed by a BBQ dinner on board the boat.
The evening (after sun set) was finished off by a short session of Karaoke which was actually okay despite the fact that nearly everyone was reluctant to get going!! The other boats were very quiet so we settled in for a quiet night only to have a full-on thunderstorm start up and go throughout the night. We had a fairly continuous display of lightening and thunder boomed around the bay with periods of torrential rain followed by light rain. The boat stayed fairly calm in the water but it was still a bit disconcerting!
With morning came a disassembling of the flotilla of boats that had moored around the same spot (we counted about 30 boats at one point) and movement to other locations or back to shore. We came back to land about 11 am and then headed back to Hanoi.
Tonight wis our farewell dinner with the group and guide with most people heading away tomorrow at some point. We still have a “spare” day so think we will have a fairly easy day with late brekkie, a stroll around the lake and a general explore. We then get collected at 9.30am on Thursday morning to catch our flight to Singapore. We have one day in Singapore before we get our flight back to Auckland.
Today is a catch up for Monday and Tuesday as we left for Ha Long Bay yesterday, stayed overnight on the boat and returned to Hanoi today.
Halong was much prettier than I imagined as although there were certainly lots of boats out and about they generally didn’t cause many problems and floated past reasonably quietly. We travelled through the Bay for about an hour before mooring and then took the transfer boat out to various locations (e.g. a huge cave complex in an adjacent cove, a lagoon nearby where David and Patrice went kayaking, a nearby island where some of the group went swimming.). We started the cruise with a lunch on board the boat which was both delicious and relaxing.
We then headed to the bay itself and moored, before transferring to the cave complex which involved a hike up a reasonable set of steps into the caves, a walk through the three chambers of the cave (of varying size) and then a hike back up the steps to get out of the cave, and down again to the harbour!! Despite the temperatures being a bit cooler and the presence of a breeze, most people looked fairly sweaty by the time they emerged. A large monkey was present at the point where our transfer boat was located and didn’t seem too fazed by the attention he was getting.
Then it was back to the main boat or off to the lagoon (depending on which option you chose) followed by a BBQ dinner on board the boat.
The evening (after sun set) was finished off by a short session of Karaoke which was actually okay despite the fact that nearly everyone was reluctant to get going!! The other boats were very quiet so we settled in for a quiet night only to have a full-on thunderstorm start up and go throughout the night. We had a fairly continuous display of lightening and thunder boomed around the bay with periods of torrential rain followed by light rain. The boat stayed fairly calm in the water but it was still a bit disconcerting!
With morning came a disassembling of the flotilla of boats that had moored around the same spot (we counted about 30 boats at one point) and movement to other locations or back to shore. We came back to land about 11 am and then headed back to Hanoi.
Tonight wis our farewell dinner with the group and guide with most people heading away tomorrow at some point. We still have a “spare” day so think we will have a fairly easy day with late brekkie, a stroll around the lake and a general explore. We then get collected at 9.30am on Thursday morning to catch our flight to Singapore. We have one day in Singapore before we get our flight back to Auckland.
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