Halong Bay - Seventh Wonder(ful)

We spent a while debating whether or not to visit Halong Bay as seeing it meant a detour in our intinery; flying to Hanoi and then a 4 hour Bus trip to Halong Bay from Hanoi. So glad we didn't miss Halong Bay, it has definately been the highlight of our trip so far.

Yesterday at around lunch time we arrived at the harbour and took a tender boat out to the Calypso Cruise. It is rated as a 4 star and is one of the newer boats on the harbour. The photo's in the brochure made the cabin seem a bit bigger than it was but the boys had a separate adjoining cabin giving us plenty of room for the four of us.

We had a seafood lunch; which was very nice for me but a challenge for Frank and the boys, as Frank doesn't eat seafood and the boys don't eat non-pizza. After lunch we explored amazing cave. Our guide kept pointing to shapes in the rock and asking us to name animals they looked like. A guy on the tour commented that it was like trying to find the face of Jesus on a piece of toast. We came back to the ship and relaxed a little before dinner. As everyone on the tour was going home the next day we decided to only stay on the Cruise one night. This gave us plenty of time to do and see what we wanted to before the boys got bored and drove us mad. Dinner was fantastic! They made allowances for Frank and the boys and served many dishes other than seafood. All were beautifully presented. They even turned out the lights at one point to bring out a 'Halloween' pineapple laden with spring rolls.

This Morning after breakfast we went canoeing inside a cave. It was awesome but we couldn't get any photo's in the cave as it was raining so we didn't take the camera. Rocco and I were in a canoe together and spent the first little while getting in sync with our paddling. Consequently ran into some rocks and also scared some other tourists in canoes. Frank and Sam got the hang of it a bit quicker.

We headed back to Hanoi after lunch. I sat in the front of the shuttle bus on the understanding that I would threaten to throw up if we got a crazy driver. Our driver was great and all went well until we were passed by an ambulance and our driver decided to ride in its slip stream. This made for a few hair raising minutes and I was just about to start making impending vomit noises when the ambulance lost us and all went back to normal. I did manage to capture some interesting images from the front seat.

On arriving back in Hanoi, we checked back into the Calypso Hotel. The management and staff have gone out of their way to make our stay enjoyable.

We have just come back from dinner and a walk around Hanoi. Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Sian Reap, Cambodia.