Fabulous Halong Bay!

Halong Bay is more than awesome! I have just spent the last three days in an area of ethereal and sublime beauty. I need to explain it all but I will need to be quick as am off for dinner with Michael then early tomorrow morning off to Edinburgh.

On Monday I made the trip , via shuttle bus , to Halong Bay. Well, having waited for years to see this natural wonder, I was beside myself!!!! Listening to other people waffling about nothing, on the bus, was irritating as here we were , headed to a place of unbelievable beauty and they were talking about Australia!!!!!!!!!
Surviving the road in Vietnam is a miracle every time you get in or on a vehicle. Driving for three hours , we survivied every time there were three trucks abreast, headed towards us... we did not make any impact upon the pedestrians of Vietnam and we left all motorcycle riders safe to cause havoc the next day....... the whole trip was punctuated by Oh Gawd! Phew! AAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! and various other exclaimations from virgin passengers!

Halong Bay at last! I couldn't believe it. I think the whole world had turned out to meet me at Halong Bay. Besides being extremely gracious, all I could think of was..." I cam all this way for this!!!" What a waste!" The bay was littered with countless junks and like boats; people crowded the jetties, looking harrassed and frustrated... Vietnamese thronged forward with armloads of pearls, Vietcong hats and other tourist delights.......
Brave woman that I am, I meekly followed my captain down to a boat that would take me and the others out to our junk. I internalised my emotions and looked for all the wonders that would assault my senses!!! Out to the junk.....

The boat was great.... tiny cabins, ... will put up pics in a few days. There were twelve of us on board this boat and thousands on all the others......... I mean thousands. Halong Bay has 5000 visitors per day! And I didn't get lost.

I'll get on with the story cos waiting in port was not the most wonderful thing I have ever done.
We sailed away! there were two kinds of trips on board....... overnighters and those staying for two nights( me)
Will cut this short... the first part of the expedition was full of people people poeple talking ..... I hated it. We stoped to look at a cave...... 400 steps up this limestone monument... 3 huge caverns... one with a hugely shaped phallus which highly amused many of the males( shy giggles) . All hundreds of us marched up the steps , into the caverns then out the other side........ well , hey! Where was the atmosphere and the time to contemplate???? I was dissapointed........ back to the boat.
I won't go on but the quick, touristy , lets have a peek at Halong Bay is awful.

The limestone monuments rising straight out of the sea,towering over everything and thejade green sea lapping at the base.... this is why I was there. These ancient sedimentary rocks of 500million years ago had become a wonder of our world. That night we went to sleep, surrounded by huge limestone jaws... hidden from pirates who are known to lurk at times.
The next morning the one nighters left and then the real trip began... we had our own boat..... 5 of us and our own guide. We spent the day kayaking through various monuments, into limestone caverns .... we listened to the birds in the towers above... we saw monkeys.......... we had silence and it belonged to us for just a day....... it cause a huge surge of emotion just to be there..... I have never been a part of anything like Halong Bay...... The beauty of the sea and the areas we kayaked in to..... yes, truly awesome.

I am almost lost for words to describe this... it is always the geological age that catches me... how insignificant are we as humans, when compared to the forces of nature and her creations..... the eons taken to carve such works of art... the millenia needed to etch time upon the rock faces.... a wonder!

And now I am back in noisy noisy Hanoi.... scooters everywhere, noise noise and it is raining.
I will leave early tomorrow mornin. Will be a long 48 hours as I have a long stopover in Sinapore but am pondering about a netbook! Have some great pics and met some poeple who had vid cams and they are going to send me their stuff......... have a 12 hour flight from Singapore to Paris then on to Edinburgh.... probably won't be feeling like a barrell of laughs when I get there!
I can't believe my time is done in Vietnam... it has gone so quickly but I have done all I set out to do...............................