How long is my bay?/Chuc Mung Nam Moi

Ha long bay comprises of 2,000 limestone karsts in the South China sea. Ancient tales say that each karsts were originally dragons sent down from the sky's to protect the land. On my last visit many beers were drank, I was looking for something a bit more low key this time around and that's exactly what we got.

Cham had got us a upgrade onto a better boat/junk, named the A Class Opera Cruise. The journey from Hanoi to the port is around 4 hours, we made it in one piece despite the dodgy roads and weaving around oncoming traffic. Being on the boat was our first chance to chat with other travellers to share stories and plans ahead.

The rest of the day was spent eating and cruising around the karsts. Despite the gloomy weather in Hanoi the sun was out and conditions were pretty good. I got to show tash my kayaking skills, I took lead whilst she sat in behind me. My friends previously had said that Kayaking was the happiest they have ever seen me. I'm told I lean to much to one side when I am turning, and the slight collision with a bamboo boat was certainly not my fault and can be blamed solely on the other driver. I'm thinking of entering the Kayak Olympics next time around.

We followed this up with a walk up 425 steps to a look out point on Ti-Top island. I will have to post some pictures so you can all see the amazing view.

After dinner we tried our hand at squid fishing. I thought this was a local joke as I don't think we even witnessed any squid let alone catching them but we were proven wrong when I and another fellow boater managed to catch one simultaneously. They go crazy when the are on the end of a hook, squirting there black ink all over the place. I'm told that if you cook and eat them you end up with a black mouth too. Our catches thankfully were eventually thrown back in.

The next morning we went around a huge limestone cave (seen this before) and had noodles for breakfast for the first time on this trip. In my attempts to avoid eggs I suspect this won't be the last. We also had a demonstration of making Vietnamese Spring Rolls - I will be making these upon my return.
Very soon we were on our way back to Hanoi for round 2. We have arrived during tet, the new year festival - although we missed the main celebrations whilst we were on the boat, we still got to see the main lake (Hoan Kiem) covered in lights and decorations. It seemed that every other street was covered in confetti too. The local people say Chuc Mung Nam Moi - Happy New Year.

Temple Count: 7
Noodle count: 4
Hours travelled: 23