Ahhhh....Halong.....

It's what you've all been waiting for people! Fans of Top Gear will probably recognise this place straight away.

I spent 2 days and a night at Halong Bay Vietnam, sleeping overnight on a junkboat anchored in the bay.....beautiful. I went for a slightly more expensive trip and so there were only 10 people on our junk (4 of which were an older crowd who only spoke French) and the food was AMAZING.

The first day was bad weather really, but it only added a sense of mystique to the surrounding limestone cliffs and islands. The junkboats are beautiful to watch.

The Vietnamese refer to Halong Bay as Dragon Bay, in the east dragons are throught to live in the water, rather than the sky as in the west. Legend has it that when the Vietnamese were fighing Chinese invaders, the heavens sent down a family of dragons to help them in the war. Of course the dragons suceeded, but instead of returning to the sky, they decided to settle on earth in the water near Vietnam, thereby creating Halong Bay.

These ladies spent all day in small boats rowing around selling beer/coke/pringles to people on junks

These two islands are the symbol that many people use for Halong Bay

The Surprise cave. It was discovered by the French during the colonial period. From the outside it didn't look very big, so it was a surprise to discover just how large it was on the inside...hence the name.

Now...the food.....

Lunch and dinner on the first day in particular were lovely. There were numerous dishes and they just kept arriving with more and more food, almost like tapas.















Lunch on the last day was fish and chips...Vietnam style. That at the bottom there is deep fried squiddly diddly.

I met some very cool people on the boat, not least Davel (from Norbury) and John who are working in Indonesia post-tsunami (yes..that's still going on), and invited me to stay with them in Aceh, Sumatra if I make it that far. Sumatra wasn't on my list, but it might be now, time and money permitting. I haven't forgotten the recipes Davel, I'll get them to you :D

Beautiful trip, lovely people...gorgeous food.

What more could one want?

To be dropped off in the right place on the way back? Thereby avoiding a 3 hour wander whilst the sun goes down? That would have been nice too, but we can't have it all now can we? :D

xx

p.s many thanks to Violet Dear of Madness and Beauty for the tour company recommendation (via blog :D)