Hi all
Although the romantic thoughts that surrounded our trip to Halong Bay were slightly realised in that the views are absolutely stunning, it is marred by the fact that you are literally part of a floating village The draw of Halong Bay has not gone unnoticed by the Vietnamese and everyone runs exactly the same tour at the same time each day, even down to the route! On the plus side you think that at least the rest of the bay is relatively free of the polluting effects of the tourism, but conversely you feel that you are on a floating city of boats. This explains the somewhat military timetable that we under went during our tour... The notion of the waves gently lulling you to sleep last night were disturbed by the sounds of the 'party boat' two hundred yards away and the mornings dreams were rudely interrupted by the staff preparing breakfast at 4.00am!! (Don't people in SE Asia realise that that's the middle of the night!) We tried to doze, but finally gave up and just as well as we got the 20 minute, 15 minute and the 5 minute warning knock that breakfast was to be s
erved! As with all our meals it was varied, plentiful & delicious. However on schedule as soon as it finished we were off for kayaking - slotted in between the other boats of tourists! They were Canadian canoes and Dean & I made an incongruous pairing with his dodgy shoulder and my gimpy back, but we managed to manoeuvre ourselves around the nearby islands including a little cave through the side of one of the cliff sides. On schedule we were back on the boat, cast off whilst we checked out, then we had 30 minutes as rest time before our final lunch another sublime seafood banquet. by the time we had finished we were back at the dock. Phew I needed a rest after all of that. Don;t get me wrong I am sure plenty of people like a bit of organisation on their trips, but a bit of breathing space between each even would have been so much better as it would have helped maintain some of the romantic nature of the trip. However the people we met were great including a couple from Bath & a convict from Sydney called Rob & that really is what makes these things special after all........
erved! As with all our meals it was varied, plentiful & delicious. However on schedule as soon as it finished we were off for kayaking - slotted in between the other boats of tourists! They were Canadian canoes and Dean & I made an incongruous pairing with his dodgy shoulder and my gimpy back, but we managed to manoeuvre ourselves around the nearby islands including a little cave through the side of one of the cliff sides. On schedule we were back on the boat, cast off whilst we checked out, then we had 30 minutes as rest time before our final lunch another sublime seafood banquet. by the time we had finished we were back at the dock. Phew I needed a rest after all of that. Don;t get me wrong I am sure plenty of people like a bit of organisation on their trips, but a bit of breathing space between each even would have been so much better as it would have helped maintain some of the romantic nature of the trip. However the people we met were great including a couple from Bath & a convict from Sydney called Rob & that really is what makes these things special after all........After all our sea air that night we gratefully sank onto our rock hard seats on the sleeper train for our overnight trip to Hue.......
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