Ha Long Bay

Took a 3 1/2 hour air conditioned bus ride to Halong Bay.  Beautiful day with just a few clouds.  Got on boat with 12 other people, from France, Belgium and the U.S.  Next oldest after me was probably 33.  Simple accommodations, a room with 2 twin beds on the lower deck, basic bathroom with European type shower in the room. We had lunch family style with a good variety of Vietnamese food.  Then we cruised around the bay which is a huge area with over 1900 islands.  Kong: Skull Island was filmed here - I watched it on the plane here, didn't like the movie, but got an idea of what I was going to see. There were tons of tour boats of all sizes and levels of luxury.  There was a disappointing amount of plastic garbage floating in the water.  This is a UNESCO world heritage site, but that doesn't seem to matter. We sat on the upper deck which had lounge chairs and an awning as we went farther into the bay away from all the boats to a more quiet spot with a couple other boats and less debris in the water.  Lots of jellyfish in these waters and even though you aren't allowed to swim there, I wouldn't want to anyway.

We kayaked to a cave on one of the islands.  The climb scrambling up rocks, some of which were wet, was a little treacherous, but I made it to a beautiful view of the water.  Kayaked around a couple islands to another cave with an even more beautiful view - we hadn't brought our cameras in the kayak unfortunately.  Had dinner and then bedtime.  They only put the AC on in the rooms after dinner, but it was wonderful being able to sleep in cool air.  In the morning we took the boat to another cave.  

This time there were stairs up part of the way, then rock climbing to an overlook of a lake in the middle of the island, just gorgeous.  More climbing rocks to a lookout, then back to the boat. 

 
 
Cruised back to the harbor sitting on the upper deck under the awning and chatting with other passengers a little.  Now we are in an air conditioned van to another port where we get on another boat to a less traveled, more remote bay, Bai Tu Long Bay.