Halong Bay Day 1

Monday May 4th saw another early start, leaving the house at 7.0am to travel by taxi, in the rush hour, to the Handspan office in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. Handspan is the company we chose for our Halong Bay cruise. They pride themselves on being environmentally friendly, using bio diesel for the boats fuel and taking us to less populated and less polluted areas of the bay.

Halong Bay in on the north part of the Vietnam coast and is characterised by the thousands of limestone karst islands.

We travelled for three and a half hours by minibus, with a half hour break halfway. At the breakpoint there was a workshop where women were making embroidered pictures, interpreting from a photo, and using their own skills. I was very tempted.......maybe we will stop there on the way back......

Once in Halong Bay city we sailed by tender boat to the Treasure Junk which was to be our hotel for the next 24 hours. The boat is two and half years old, although it looked older on the outside, but inside it was well appointed. Our cabin was made up with a double bed, and there was an excellent wet room/ bathroom.

We set sail.....and began to experience the wonderful scenery. The weather was good, and later in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds.

Lunch was seven courses!! All typical,Vietnamese dishes , a soup, followed by a small salad, then prawns, spring rolls, cooked meat in a broth, noodles, fresh fruit. All delicious and beautifully presented.

After lunch we went kayaking, for about an hour and half. Double kayaks, I was in front and Michael behind. He is definitely right handed!!!,....and it was difficult to keep on course at times!!. However we made it to the small beach destination, where we had a short rest before returning to the junk, with the current and wind behind us. It was fascinating to be right amongst the Huge rock islands.There is always something to do on this junk, besides sit and admire the views, at 6.0pm the chef gave a short demonstration on how to make a meat roll on a special leaf, the we made some too,  they were fried and we all got to taste, very delicious.

This boat takes 28 passengers but there are only 15 of us on board, with 20 staff, so we're are being very well looked after.

After the sunset we had dinner at 7.0pm. Just 6 courses this time, pumpkin soup, yam yam bean salad, king  prawns on skewers, Bbq' mackerel, pork rib with fragrant  rice, creme caramel with fresh fruit.

Then it was time for bed, in preparation for another early start.....