On Friday, after exploring a bit more of Hà Nội, we headed for Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Sight where we embarked on an overnight voyage aboard the Dragon Legend small cruise ship, barely large enough to hold our group of 30. Ha Long, which means “descending dragon,” is an area of about 500 square miles of ocean which surrounds about 2,000 small islands or limestone karsts. Some of the largest islands maintain small communities, but most are too small and severe to encourage human occupation, though evidence exists of human occupation in the bay for nearly 20,000 years. Representing hundreds of millions of years of evolution, the limestone in this bay encompasses several unique environments.

We boarded the Dragon Legend in time for lunch on the sun deck, and set sail for one of the more remote parts of the bay. In the afternoon, some of our group kayaked around a few islands while others took the tender to get a closer look. Back on board, we enjoyed the sunset and an excellent dinner of local cuisine before anchoring for the night. Sunrise came early, allowing us to go ashore on one island and explore a cave before enjoying brunch while returning to port.

Afternoon, we drove an indirect, scenic route to the Hà Nội airport and where we embarked on short flight to our first stop in central Viet Nam, the imperial city of Hue.