Vietnam - Ha Long Bay

We left our lovely hotel in Ninh Binh at 7.30am this morning to drive to Ha Long Bay. Once we left the rural charm of Ninh Binh province it became more sophisticated with excellent motorways and very good motorway service stops, but sadly quite a bit of litter around as is common in any metropolitan area. Shortly before reaching the terminal where we got the boat into the bay, we stopped at a place where they showed us how they makes pearls - essentially the live pearls are artificially inseminated with a small artificial pearl and some membrane from the shell, so the oyster can grow a larger natural pearl around it. Then of course we were shown into the large store to buy some pearls! 

We boarded our tender boat which took us out into Ha Long Bay where we then joined our larger cruising boat called Ginger. This is a luxury boat that can take 16 passengers, it has 8 cabins which are very well appointed with sliding doors onto a balcony and a full bathroom with a shower and a bath. We were given a safety briefing and then taken to our cabins before lunch was served. Thankfully it was blue skies with sunshine as very often Ha Long bay is cloudy with misty conditions. While we were eating our delicious lunch, Ginger was cruising south around the largest island in this bay called Cat Ba, and we anchored in Lan Ha Bay which is much quieter and has less tourist boats than Ha Long Bay. 

After lunch we took the tender to Cat Ba and disembarked, where those who wanted to got bicycles to cycle into the village. Others were taken in electric buggy type of vehicles. The bicycles have no gears so cycling uphill was not easy! The village in the island was not very attractive, I was hoping to photograph people but there was no one around other than those promoting their fish massage spas - the ones where fish nibble off the dead skin from your feet. No one in our group went for that option, we preferred to just cycle around. There were so many dogs in this village, some quite cute but some that looked like the result of inter-breeding. One had the most awful looking skin condition, all red and raw - they really need a vet there!

Then back to the boat and we watched the sunset, it wasn't that spectacular but apparently in winter the sunrises are much better than the sunsets, so hopefully tomorrow we will see the sunrise. There was a cooking demonstration after that but we decided to relax in our cabin and enjoy the view from our balcony until suppertime. 

We only have one night on the boat, one night is all that is needed to get a sense of the bay. Tomorrow morning there is Tai Chi at sunrise and then kayaking before breakfast, although I am not sure if I will do either of those activities. After we disembark we go to Hanoi and have a full schedule of activities there for the day. 

The wifi is really awful here, so I will try to upload this but I may have to do it when we get back to Hanoi tomorrow. I have reduced the image to a very small file so the quality may not be good.