Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is a beautiful natural wonder in Northern Vietnam The bay, known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands (|there are 1600 of them!), covering an area of 1500 sqm. An absolute must do when in Vietnam. Touring in the bay is done through the hundreds of Junk Boat tours, booking online is not a good idea which was why we waited until we were in Hanoi so we could talk to someone and pick our boat. There are several classes, and none of them are cheap (better deal if you book in person). We went with a mid range and were pleasantly surprised. Our shuttle came to pick us up to take us to our ship

getting an early start, it was 9 am and we were having beers

 Paying attention to weather is key (which we did not do) and you really only need 2 day 1 night tour (we did the 3 day 2 night). It was cool and drizzly almost the entire time we were there, so having 3 days on the boat meant there was a lot of down time. We had a beautiful room that was big enough for all of us with our own luxurious bathroom. The kids were pretty excited as they had never slept on a boat before, so the novelty of it seemed pretty cool.  

The roof of our boat

that is the girls waving hello rom our room. The rooms were actually beautiful inside, much nicer then is seemed from the outside

we drove around for hours and the views were all spectacular- too bad about the weather

Our itinerary was pretty full, they had us going kayaking for a couple of hours in the bay, the rain held off so it was quite lovely. We were all a little bummed the sun wasn't shining, despite the grey, the bay was stunning. 

The second day the sun was trying to peak out and we headed for a day trip to Cat  Ba island. 

National Park in Ha long Bay

When we arrived we picked up bicycles and went for a beautiful ride through the mountains and rice patties to a small town. It was pretty amazing. 

getting off the small boat at CatBa National Park

Here's the part in the story where our trip went downhill (pardon the pun). Annie being the donkey that she is decided to race Johnny on the bikes...flying down a big hill to the non existent finish line, she hit a patch of loose gravel and went flying over the handle bars hitting a scooter. Pretty hard apparently, Johnny said is was ugly. We luckily had an RN on board with us and she suspected Annie had a couple of cracked ribs. She also had some codeine with her, thank goodness, Annie was out of commission for the next couple of days...she was in so much pain, couldn't do much of anything..it was awful. (Note  she is incredibly strong and bounced back wayyyy sooner then anyone expected, no kite surfing for her but at least she was able to enjoy the rest of Vietnam from a standing position :)

we went to a floating fishing market on the way, pretty interesting, very stinky!

That was it for Ha Long Bay- very pretty, definitely glad we went, we all wished the weather cooperated, would have made for a way better trip. Three days two nights, was a little too long, two days would have been perfect. 

So Long Ha Long!