Halong Bay is a World Heritage site of thousands of steep-sided limestone islands/mountains called karsts, protruding from the waters creating an amazing scenic spectacle.
As we arrived, we noticed that there was a heavy fog or smog across the water hindering visibility so asked when that would lift only to be told, "oh, this is the wrong time of the year to visit Halong, it's always foggy now". Hmmm. OK, so it's not the best but it was still very beautiful.
We boarded one of the many hundreds of tour boats to take us on a two-day, one night trip around the bay. The boat had terrific accommodation for nine couples so we were joined by some others from Russia, Argentina, Britain and Rumania - quite an international mix.
Despite the poor visibility, the entire trip was fabulous. The islands are spectacular and well worth visiting. Lonely Planet mentioned that it was getting overrun by tour boats so advised to make the trip before it's totally ruined. We had to agree that there were far too many boats out there, literally hundreds, but we thoroughly enjoyed it and can only hope that numbers are limited before it gets out of hand.
Tourism in Vietnam is growing by leaps and bounds but, at this stage, it's still fairly unsophisticated and they have a lot to learn if they want to develop the industry to the level most western tourists expect. Although it's technically a communist country, free enterprise is flourishing and, apart from our visit to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, we've not really felt it's influence at all.
The tour included a stop at a pearl farm and into some magnificent caves on one of the few islands where landing was possible. We kayaked Into another big cave which opened up into a large enclosed lagoon; quite beautiful. Again, I'll only be able to post photos once we return to Calypso.
Back to Hanoi to catch the overnight train to the mountainous region of Sa Pa.
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