Halong Bay is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been.. That may seem like a bold call, but it puts the previous holder of the title (the Amalfi Coast, Italy) to shame!
Halong Bay is made up of hundereds of vegetation clad limestone formations that dramatically rise out of the South China Sea. Halong Bay was named by the French and means “Land of the Dragon” as the formations represent the body of a dragon.
After hours of deliberation in Hanoi the day before, we opted to indulge in a bit of luxury and splashed out for a high-end 3 day tour – one night on the Pinter Cruiser and one night at a 5* resort on Cat Ba Island (Flashpacking Gone Nuts). Well worth it!
Having just got off the over night train from Sapa we camped out in a cafe for a few hours before being picked up by our mini-bus. We were both knackered after very little sleep, a string of early starts and the trekking.
We got to the harbour at noonish and boarded the Pinter, a lovely traditional style junk boat. We were greeted with a fresh watermelon smoothy 
We cruised out into the bay and after a while anchored for lunch. We shared a table with Kelvin, an old-timer American who was hard of hearing. Laura’s normally loud voice got louder!! We learnt on this first sitting the need to pace ourselves as the excellent food just kept on coming, wave after wave … it was an onslaught!
After lunch we, and seemingly every other boat in the vacinity headed to the grandly named Amazing cave, which lived up to it’s billing.
We then headed to a secluded spot in the bay, away from the plebs 
, where we anchored for the night. It was a full moon and the views were breathtaking. We got talking to a brother and sister (Mike and Kate) from New England who were in their early twenties – spent a lot of time talking music; I felt old after catching myself saying tossy things like “back in the mid-90′s I was living in Manchester when the whole britpop scene exploded”. Jebus!
We were up early to watch the sunrise (I’ll link to some pics once they’re uploaded), which was even more breathtaking than the rising full moon. Totally stunning. Ethereal.
After breakfast we took to the water in kayaks and bossed around for a few hours. We ended by paddling through a floating village, equiped with a school, electricity and dogs!
After re-boarding the Pinter Cruiser we packed up and were decanted onto a smaller boat to get us to Cat Ba Island, the main island in Cat Ba National Park.
We weren’t to know it then, but that was the last time we were to see the Pinter!
As I write this we are stuck at sea!
We’re on our way back from Cat Ba Island and although the Sun is beaming, there is a low fog that is hugging the sea and rocks.
After waiting for about an hour for the mist to drift by, I playfully asked Duke if the captain had any charts. Unsuprisingly the answer was no as I was told the captain used his knowledge of the rocks and experience of the bay to navigate. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer of experience and learning from the scars of life, but it doesn’t count for shit when you’re floating about in 30m visabilty on the South China Sea!!
I’d offered the captain use of the GPS on my phone, but got a bemused look in return. I guess knowing where you are now isn’t much use when you don’t know where you’re heading.
The engines have just re-started, I can spy a rock on the horizon!
