Halong Bay

At times I felt as if I was in another world. Though I enjoyed Hanoi, my time in the city brought about mixed experiences...little did I know what was in store. On June 14th we boarded a bus to head to Halong City, where we would board a boat to tour the islands. We decided to take a 3 day/2 night tour of Halong Bay. We spent the first night on the boat and the second night at Cat Ba island, one of the many islands in Halong Bay. Along the way we had the chance to explore several of the treasures in the area (which included kayaking, swimming, visiting the floating villages and viewing several caves)

The floating villages were quite interesting...these people literally live in houses smaller than most house boats and the entire town is comprised of this. It appeared that the livelihood of these people was based on us tourists!

After kayaking and swimming we anchored for the night...we were extremely lucky because we had a great group of folks on our boat. Most were between the age of 23-31 and came from all over the globe. If I am remembering correctly, there were people from England, Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Canada and America...pretty impressive! It made for a fantastic night and the scenery could not be beat!

The next day we got up for an early breakfast and then headed to Cat Ba island for the day. Meera and I were supposed to go trekking, but some how this got lost in translation and we didn't get to go...frustrating, but not much we could do. The island is a cute little beach town that thrives on tourists. In the afternoon we headed to the beach for a couple of hours...It was absolutely fabulous! White sandy beaches and the water as warm as bath water. At first we had the beach entirely to ourselves, but within an hour the scene quickly changed when tons of others joined us...I've never seen anything like it...