Halong Bay

Halong Bay is one of the most visited places in Vietnam, so we decided to join the throngs of tourists there, but we decided to base ourselves on Cat Ba Island to hopefully see the quieter part of the bay.

We caught a ferry to Cat Ba and walked up the waterfront street to look for a place to stay.  It wasn't long before we found one which had a 7th floor view of the beautiful bay and included breakfast, all for about $28 Canadian per night.  Gotta love it!  We enjoyed our little balcony and the stunning sunset view.

The view from our balcony


on the balcony capturing sunset photos

Vietnam loves their neon lights, even out on Cat Ba Island

In the morning we took a boat out to Lan Ha Bay, a quieter part of the larger Halong Bay.  It was a bit overcast/ misty, which apparently it often is, but the scenery was still really beautiful.  Halong Bay is full of limestone karst formations, living up to its other name "The Bay of Descending Dragons"  - the karsts looked like the the spines on a dragon's back descending into the water.

One of many descending dragons

As we slowly toured the bay we saw several small floating fishing villages, and many people from the villages out in their small boats fishing, setting or checking nets.

a floating fishing village, complete with laundry lines and pet dogs


Some villagers out fishing


We also saw lots of beautiful karst arrangements, hidden beaches, and a few other boats full of tourists.










At one point we stopped at a floating kayak station where we loaded into double kayaks and paddled out to explore some caves and bays, it was beautiful.

This was the water color in the bay when the sun was shining


lots of hidden bays to explore


The kids had fun jumping and diving off of the second story of the boat when we stopped for awhile just off of a beautiful white sand beach that we could swim over to and enjoy.

Lucas diving in


Chris and the kids on the beach looking like champs!

There was another monkey island here too, some of the monkeys looked a little unhealthy so we avoided them but enjoyed a beautiful hike up to the top of the island to see the views of the bays on either side.
The view from the top of Monkey Island

This is a really special area, easy to see why it is so popular with tourists.

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