~ Ha Long Bay ~

A bit behind time but here we go! Our next part was an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay which I must say is breath taking. So after a 3.5 hour bus journey we joined a boat for 2 days.

 

 

Unfortunately the weather on the first day was a little hazy so the islands were not clealy seen by the camera. We had a fantastic 3 course lunch before heading off to Luon Cave. We went via a small wooden boat through a cave in to a small lagoon.

 

After this we sailed for a little while before going to Tiptop island, which has a man-made beach and the opportunity to walk up 427 steep steps to reach the summit and its amazing views (unfortunately this was hampered by being involved in a medical emergency, thankfully someone took some photos with my camera for me!)

 

The views from the top were stunning and you could see for miles!

 

I was fortunate to catch a quick glimpse of the stunning sunset over the bay.

 

One of the chefs showed us how to create decorative objects from food such as tomato roses. We had a leisurely evening of food and a lovely massage.

After getting up at 5.15am to see the disappointing sunrise (as it was too cloudy!) we had a session of Tai Chi on the deck of the boat. This was highly amusing and certainly woke us up.

 

The final part of our trip to Ha Long Bay was to visit the Surprise Cave which is a hugh cave system containing 4 very large spectacular caves. We then had breakfast and set sail for the mainland and Hanoi Airport.