Day 2 Thursday 26th March Cruising in Ha Long Bay

Just a few lines about our evening. Rob and I went up to the rooftop bar for the view and a drink. While there we met a man called Trevor who was doing the same tour as us and was on his own. He might be slightly older than us but had said that this was the first trip he’d been on, on his own, since his wife died just over six moths ago. He was from Mackay in Queensland and was great company. He said he was having difficulty getting his Wise money card to work and as we had these cards for this trip, Rob was eager to try to sort his problems out. Anyway, after a drink or two, we walked to a nearby ATM and Rob tried to assist Trevor with his card. There were still problems, so we gave up and decided to find somewhere for dinner. We went into a small restaurant nearby and looked at the menu. Unfortunately, every item on the menu was “goat” and as no other meat was offered, we decided to return to the hotel and ate in the restaurant there. We had a wonderful night’s sleep and woke refreshed. Following breakfast Rob was able to assist Trevor and finally he was able to use his Wise card. We were on the bus with our guide Tony, by 8.45am. We met the rest of our tour group, which numbers 16. The bus trip to Ha Long Bay took about 2 hours. We had the mandatory stop for coffee and toilets at a large store which sold many things. There were about 30 young women working on beautiful pieces of tapestry artworks. The works looked like paintings and some like photographs, but they had all been completed using an array of various coloured threads. There were many salespeople spread throughout the store to entice you to purchase things, but I don’t think many of the group made any large purchases. The drive took us away from the big cities and we were able to experience a little more of the countryside. We saw many traditional paddy fields as well as smaller towns with a more agricultural feel. Tony explained why many of the houses are so tall and narrow. It was because the home is taxed depending on its width. Arriving at Ha Long Bay, we boarded our small ship on which we would be cruising through the many islands and beautiful scenery of the bay, as well as spending the night. We had been warned about how popular this bay had become but still found it hard to believe just how many tourist boats and ships were out on the water. We enjoyed cruising through the magnificent scenery of the huge, towering columns and islands covered with rainforest, while having lunch on the boat.  Following this we were then taken on a tender boat to a small island. Here we were able to either go for a strenuous walk up to a lookout at the top of the island, or swim from the little beach, or just sit and stroll. We chose the third option because unfortunately, Rob had started to feel ill. The huge number of tender boats, off-loading people onto this tiny island, combined with the masses of people on the beach and in the water made us all feel a little sad. It seems that the Vietnamese have just over commercialised this area and it has lost its appeal, especially from those of us from Australia. We felt so grateful to live in a place where there are thousands of kilometres of beautiful beaches and never full of people like this. We returned to our tender boat and were then taken to another area, where we could go for a kayak through a cave or take a small boat into the area that would be rowed for the group. I opted to go for a kayak but Rob by this stage was not well enough for this activity and went in the rowboat. I was teamed up with a lovely lady from Sydney and we had an enjoyable time, negotiating the small cave to kayak through and out to the other side where you were surrounded by the tall, rock karsts formations, covered with vegetation. The only way to get in and out of this area was via the cave. We saw some monkeys on the rocks and found some peaceful areas away from the myriads of rowboats, inside this area. We returned to our ship to enjoy the sunset and a beautiful seafood dinner. Unfortunately, poor Rob was too sick to join us and has spent the rest of the day and evening in our cabin. We’re both hoping that whatever he has (many theories from drinking the tap water, to food poisoning etc. etc. but who really knows) he might have recovered a little by the morning and be well enough to enjoy the rest of the trip.