Halong Bay

We spent our last two days in Vietnam on a trip to Halong Bay, with one night spent sleeping on a junk in the bay. There were just six of us on the trip, half the usual number, which definitely improved the experience. The others were a British mother and daughter and a couple from Hawaii, who were very nonchalant about all the kayaking and beach parts of the trip. The trip was one of the more expensive things we've done while travelling, but although you can get bargain-basement prices for expeditions to Halong it was worth paying a bit more as our boat was lovely and the food was great.

 The weather was pretty misty on our first day there, but we felt lucky as the weather can be much worse at this time of year. The haze made the whole trip feel more romantic, and it was great to just sit on the sun deck and gaze out at the limestone islands. It was not hard to imagine a pirate ship suddenly appearing out of the gloom, or hidden treasure buried on one of the forested crags.

We visited the largest cave in the bay, which is also Vietnam 's second biggest. It really was quite impressive, although also crammed full of tourists.

Indeed, Halong Bay is very big business, and perhaps in danger of being spoiled if the number of boats allowed into the bay is not regulated. It is also evidently very popular with families - we saw lots of people there with young children.

We spent a couple of hours kayaking around the islands later that afternoon - it was just as well we'd done it in Laos as no instruction was given! The sea was extremely calm and we didn't capsize at all. We kayaked into a bay entirely enclosed by cliffs at one point, and accessible only through a cave.

The food on the boat was Vietnamese, served buffet style, with a massive variety of dishes to choose between. At each of our meals there was usually one vegetable dish, often cabbage cooked with ginger, one squid dish,  a chicken or pork stir fry, a snake-head fish cooked in a tomato sauce and tiger prawns. There was often also a gelatinous soup to start with, which neither of us liked much. Dessert was fresh fruit.

After dinner we played cards with the others on the trip, although conversation was a bit stilted at times.

On the second day of the trip, we climbed up a steep set of steps to the top of the highest limestone island, for panoramic views of the bay. It was just seven am, so there were no other tourists there and the bay was still.

We cruised back into harbour by way of a different route, and arrived back in Hanoi about four pm. The next morning we flew to Bangkok, arriving just a few hours before the riots escalated into violence...