Halong Bay Cruise

     We returned yesterday evening from our three day, two night cruise of Halong Bay, a must-see destination in Vietnam. Indeed it was! I highly recommend Halong Bay as a side trip for anyone coming to Vietnam.
     Our bus picked us up from our hotel at about 8:30 am Wednesday morning for the four hour drive, east from Hanoi, to Halong Bay. We rode tender boats from the port to our ship, the Silversea. On the Silversea, we had a suite room, which meant it was one of only two on the boat that had a private balcony and complimentary fruit and bottle of wine in the room.

approaching the Silversea on a tender boat

     As we were served lunch, the Silversea headed out into the bay. Halong Bay contains 1969 limestome karsts. Limestone is a soft rock. Over the ages, coastal erosion created these pillars, islands and islets of limestone in the bay. Unlike the volcanic rock that we saw in the small islands around El Nido in the Philippines, these karsts generally are covered with vegetation.
     Halong Bay was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. And yes, you can see a pattern in my choice of adventure destinations. UNESCO does a fine job of identifying and encouraging preservation of places with cultural and natural significance.
   

at low tide

     During our first afternoon on the boat, we, and five other of the twenty people on the boat, opted out of a hike up to the top of a karst for the view of the bay. Stairs straight up the side of a mountain, at 3 pm in a tropical country? Just tell me about it when you get back down. Several who went were glad they did, several said it was really tiring and terribly hot. We all went on the next outing from the boat, kayaking and swimming. I wasn't yet ready to kayak, but did join swimming from the boat (not on a beach). 

Halong Bay in the evening

    Dinner that evening, just like lunch, was a series of courses of tasty food, fresh seafood and fruit were highlighted. The upper deck of the boat was an open lounge area where many passengers congregated aftr dinner to share travel stories. Our bed was comfortable and we slept well. 

    On the second day of the cruise, all the other passengers left the ship because they had booked their second night on Cat Ba Island. Phillip and I joined nine other travelers from several different boats for a day cruise farther afield of the mass of cruise boats. Our guide and handler for the day, Dan, was great! Fun, perfectly understandable English, and very knowledgeable. Our first stop, and we were the only group there, was a cave on a karst. It was a more natural experience than going into caves elsewhere. No concrete, man-made walkways, no lights (Dan had a couple of flashlight and several of us used our cell phone flashlights.)

stalactites in the karst cave

    We saw some awesome stalactites and stalagmites. The sea, as it eroded the limestome, created the caves eons ago. As the limestone above dissolved, plenty of formations were created. 

      Several times, we had to squat and sqeeze thru openings, but we were also surprised by openings out into the light.

     After the cave, we went kayaking. This time, with a smaller group, Phillip and I did join in, our very first kayaking adventure! I don't have any pictures because we were busy paddling the kayak. I didn't take the camera with us because I wanted to concentrate on paddling and not tipping over. I must say, we were actually in no danger of tipping over and did just fine. I wish I had taken the camera, because when we got about fifty feet from the dock on our return, the kayak helpers yelled "monkey, monkey!" and pointed up. As Phillip and I were kayaking about fifteen feet from the rock, we looked above us, into a tree that was hanging over the water, and yes.... a monkey! A wild monkey - there are animals on the larger karst islands. We did, however, make sure we did not paddle directly under the monkey. Monkeys are known to announce their presence with a stream of urine. No monkey pee for us. 

from the boat, the tree that contained the monkey 

   Dan and the staff of our day boat served us a terrific lunch of green papaya salad, fried squid, sauteed morning glories, pork skewers, chicken, rice, and fruit. After lunch, we visited a pearl farm and saw how the irritant (made from oyster shell), is added to live oysters. After three to five years, these irritants get coated repeatedly by the oyster and turn into cultured pearls. 

implanting to create cultured pearls

     We returned to our Silversea boat where we had a new batch of people, the two day, one night batch. We missed their 3 pm trek up the stairs, but did join then for kayaking again. From never kayaking to twice in one day! Phillip and I paddled near the shore, looking for monkeys, but it was a different karst island and we didn't see any monkeys. It was still fun to see the many bugs skittering across the rocks and to look up at the formations.

the view from the kayak, looking up 

   Another beautiful night on the boat, drinking my complimentary wine!

sunset on Halong bay

   Sunrise was about 5:15 am, and I got up to get sunrise pictures; however, unlike my sunset pictures, boats joined the reflection on the water. 

sunrise Friday morning

    We went with this second batch of people to another cave on our third morning. This cave, containing three chambers, was huge. It reminded me of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. 

find the people on the lower right third of the picture, and you'll see the scale of the chamber

      Surprising Cave was more developed for tourists. It had a sturdy walkway to keep the visitors out of the dampness on the cave floor, but it also kept us farther away from the features than the smaller cave had. It was still a very impressive cave.

sea water wave action, not dripping water, created these features

     A final view from the cave chamber, out cross the bay.

     After the cave visit, we went back to the Silversea for a class on how to make spring rolls. We can already do that, so I just made one to eat. Lunch, then the tender to port and bus ride back to Hanoi. We had reservations for an outdoor cultural show yesterday evening and caught the shuttle bus for the hour-long trip, but it started storming enroute. When we arrived at the venue, a representative came on the bus to apologize, saying the show had been cancelled. Outdoor performers, outdoor seating, lightening and heavy rain... we certainly understood. So, another bus ride back to Hanoi! For the next few days, we are shopping and just wandering around Hanoi. Maybe some more adventures?