15/10/09 Halong Bay

We woke up early to join our day tour to see Halong Bay. As Jennifer hadn't called to cancel we assumed we were goingand just after 8 the bus arrived to collect us. At breakfast our good friends the Americans had whined at us about the day trip and thought they were on the same one as us. We are pleased to report they weren't on our trip!! After about an hours driving around the town picking up all the passengers we finally headed out of Hanoi for the 4 hour drive to the bay. Halong bay is a Unesco world heritage site and is one of Vietnams top tourist destinations as it is so stunning. There are more than three thousand limestone islands rising out of the emerald green waters of the bay of the Gulf of Tonkin.Ther are inumerable caves and grottoes dotted about the green islands to explore. We stopped halfway for some food and other refreshments before carrying on to Halong quayside to catch a boat. At Halong there was a tourist tax for having a wee as we discovered when all the tourists had to hand over cash to use the facilities. We sailed out in to the bay which was unfortunately really hazy but thankfully not raining and stopped at a floating village. The inhabitants live out on their floating homes permanently breeding fish and catching shellfish to eat and getting supplies from passing boats. We climbed aboard one of them and to a look at all the fish they had available. Some passengers bought fish to be cooked with their lunch. We declined but there looked to be some lovely fish if you like it. Some people went kayaking while lunch was prepared and went exploring a nearby cave. They only got 20 minutes though so we didn't bother but just waited on the top of the boat for the lunch to be ready. We had a nice seafood buffet which Liz had a bit of but Phil wasn't too keen so tucked into his Pringles. After lunch we carried on to visit a limestone cave. We weren't expecting too much and were pleasantly suprised by the size and features of it. Our guide took us round and explained all the different areas and we were all impressed with the scale and beauty inside. It was called Heavenly cave and there were many huge stalagmites and stalactites all lit up with coloured lights which were really affective. After that visit we sailed through the bay seeing a few other famous landmarks including two rocks which looked like fighting c*** !! We sailed on through to Halong again to meet the bus for the journey back to Hanoi. At Hanoi we had a quick KFC burger (how very bad) then had a couple of beers in a little bar in the old quarter called Red bar before we headed back. At the hotel we went on the internet for a while as it was free in the hotel and Hung the receptionist drew a picture of "Elillibet" . It was pretty good but made her look relly old...oh dear!! Since then Liz is called Elillibet by Phil all the time.