Halong Bay has been designated a World Natural Heritage site by the UNESCO, and as such it is one of the biggest tourist magnets in Vietnam. Exploring the bay independently is virtually impossible: it consists of nearly 2000 small limestone islands, so without a boat you don't have much of a chance to see the bay properly. Consequently, there are hundreds of tour operators in Hanoi that offer 1-, 2-, and 3-day cruises. I didn't even bother to compare programs and prices, and just went with my hostel's recommended operator. They picked me up at the hostel in the morning, and after a four-hour drive we arrived at the bay and boarded our boat. The weather was nothing short of perfect, giving us one gorgeous view after the other:
After some cruising and lunch on the boat, we stopped to visit the Surprise Cave. I really loved exploring the cave - small wonder, really, when you consider the spectacular views that each new chamber revealed.
The cave is a dry cave full of tastefully lit stalagmites and stalactites, and a very interesting formation making up the ceiling:
At some points, the cave opened to the outside, creating a wonderful contrast between the yellow artificial light and the blue-white daylight.
After the cave visit, we went kayaking. We started at a nearby floating fishing village and then went around a few of the bay's islands. The guide was setting an ambitious pace - until, about ten minutes in, he suddenly said he had a hole in his boat and would sink if he didn't return immediately. He explained which way we had to go, and for the rest of the kayaking we were guide-less and able to go at our own, much slower pace. At one point, we met this boat that was towing four smaller ones behind - a little like a duck and her ducklings, very cute ;-)
The sun goes down very early in Vietnam at this time of year - it's dark around 5:30 pm - so the sun was already quite low towards the end of our kayaking trip.
After we returned the kayaks, we quickly got on the cruise ship again and went to another island - tea house island, if I remember correctly. This island had a small climbable peak with a pavilion aka tea house on top. This house provided a prime lookout point for watching the sunset. Of course, all the other cruise ships knew about this as well, and so the tea house was really crowded. Nevertheless, I managed to shoot a few nice pictures:
The view towards the east was quite interesting as well, just to give you an impression of the number of cruise ships in Halong Bay at any given time (and remember, it isn't high season, and many of them were anchoring at tea house island at this point):
The island also had a small beach with a roped-off swimming area, to prevent tourists getting run over by cruise ships, I guess. Swimming in the post-sunset twilight with the moon shining above and the horizon still glowing was magical:
Equally magical was the hot shower afterwards: the ocean was relatively cool, and without a sun to warm me after the swim I was really grateful we had hot water on board.
