Ha Long Bay's a true wonder!!

From Hanoi to Ha Long Bay it’s about a 4 hour bus trip. It didn’t feel too long, the kids were great, we were all a little excited and didn’t know what to really expect. It was drizzling and a bit misty…it was a little cold. After about 30 mins we got on a small tender boat that took us to our Chinese Junk (that’s what they call the boats)…not junk by any means!! We arrived on our ‘Junk’ called the Oriental Sails, once we boarded we had refreshments and were shown to our room, it had solid timber floors, walls and ceiling with the timber windows on the port and starboard sides… it really was picture perfect. We were then served lunch which had about 7 courses… too much food, a lot of different seafood, chicken and pork dishes. Soon after we began to cruise slowly through mist, after a short while you could make out the silhouette of the rock mountains coming out of the ocean, they were huge and now appearing everywhere, they were magnificent. The mist lifted and we were amazed…clearly a work of a master craftsman…even Ashah was looking out saying to Lisa, “oh beautiful mum!”  

They anchored the Oriental Sail after a few hours of cruising in amongst the limestone rock islands. We were invited to go kayaking around the islands, which we were all excited to try… we put our life jackets on and Lisa held Ashah in the front and I rowed in the rear seat. Alex went with the guide beside us, I was sure to stay close to him. It was an awesome experience, the kids loved it… we kayaked for a few hours in and out of caves and exploring small beach shores…fantastic.

These limestone rocks come straight out of the ocean, it said that there are well over a 1000 of these rock islands, few with monkeys living on them which we saw on the banks and swinging from the trees suspended out from the rock faces as we kayaked by. Amazing scenery, quite overwhelming, we could not believe what we were seeing and to think that this would be our home for the next 3 days in amongst these islands.

The greatest part was waking up each morning to the amazing scenery, you're on the water and you look out your bedroom window and see the big rocks and all the other boats anchored around, it was a sight to behold. The food and service was fantastic too!

Alex and I were able to fish for squid at night from our boat, we managed to catch and see a few caught which made a fresh meal. We loved the staff on the boats and became good friends with other guests on the boat too. We particularly connected with a Spanish couple that live in Pamplona, Spain where the bull-running fiesta is held in July every year. The bull stories were not really convincing me, but when they began to speak and describe the food at these fiestas I thought I might have to try it. We have been invited to stay with them and become a bull-runner in the fiesta…crazy stuff!!

We would recommend this experience to everyone, it was amazing and not a great expense. It was difficult for us to capture the exact beauty of the place in a photo although Lisa did try.