As we approached the end of a long month travelling together, our last treat was to go to Halong Bay. Having been in Hanoi for a night, we got an early bus to take us the three hours to get to the coast. If you have seen images of Halong Bay, they have probably been photoshopped. We were expecting Chinese junk boats, crystal clear waters and blue skies. In reality, we got the complete opposite as we had arrived at the wrong time of year. However, even though the weather was a bit rubbish, it did not take away from the beauty of this UNESCO World Heritage site.
We boarded a boat tour, which would weave in and out of the limestone islands whilst serving a spectacular feast. I thought the cucumber looked very well presented :) What I can say is that none of us expected it to be soooo cold, and we were chittering away in awe at the sights in front of us.
We made our way to a large island, where the limestone caves were. They had some weird coloured lighting going on inside, which I feel took away from how magnificent it was. Apparently when the cave was found, the local people hacked away at a lot of it, which is a real shame.
Outside the big cave, and we were presented with the following views.
Back on the boat, we headed towards where we would be staying that night. Cat Ba island.
The island itself was very quiet, but I can imagine in summer it is quite busy. I bought some fresh water pearls from a chatty Vietnamese vendor and we had dinner in a Thai restaurant. It was Heather's birthday, and Ha had organised a special cake. That night we went out for a few drinks and met some more travellers.
The next day we had to get on a ferry to get back to the mainland. They made everyone get out of the bus and face the cold for what felt like two hours. I didn't mind so much, as it was like being back in Scotland, but some people were not dressed appropriately for the weather. The group were not impressed and were glad to get back on the bus to warm up. Back to Hanoi we went for our last night together!
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