Hanoi & Halong

OK!
We're back in business.
I think it was one or two of the pics on the card had got fecked, so when I deleted some, it worked.
Anywhoo...
Halong Bay.
World Heritage site.
Awesome.
What more can I say?
In brief, it's around 3,000 small islands off Halong city(about 3.5hrs East of Hanoi) in the Gulf of Tonkin, north of the South China Sea. Now for ya!

We went on a 3 day/ two night cruise around Halong Bay on a traditional Chinese Junk.
(And you were probably thinking, ahhh, the poor lads lugging those packs around SE Asia, it must be hard going at times) :)

On the first day, we set sail for a cave on, or should I say, in one of the islands.
A giant cave, 3.5sq km inside, they have it well lit. And have interesting myths and stories to go along with the shapes and formations.

A short trek came in the afternoon, but I'll cover that in a separate post...
After that we went against the plans for the day, which including swimming and kayaking etc. And chose to laze about on the boat. Joined by several Aussies, Spanish and English we had beers and I slapped out the guitar for a few songs after dinner Twas a great night! People from the the Junk near us even popped over onto our boat for the craic! :)

Sea Eagle:

Which ones is a boat, and which one is an island?

Here's a pic of a floating village.

Directly after taking this photo, we crashed into this floating home. It was awful. You could see the whole structure bending under the presure. They weren't happy to say the least! Check out the dogs, they're for security, so no one steals fish or robs anything while they're out at market and the like. You'd have to walk the dogs around the 'block' about 500 times for it to be worth anything to the dog!

The power cut for the night, which added to the atmosphere. Some people didn't like it, and were giving out, but I'm always a fan of power going, it brings people closer together!

The Spanish girls and some other dudes from the other boat:

Dave out with the Aussies and Debbie:
Day two we were still cruising around Halong Bay amongst the islands, and in the afternoon, we were dropped off at Cat Ba island. The only inhabited island in Halong Bay. We stayed in a hotel that night, easily the nicest place we've stayed so far on the trip! During the day we went to Monkey Island(That's right Nelbert & Smeels!) which I'll drone on about in the other post too.
The next morning was a cruise back towards the mainland, a quick lunch and back to Hanoi.

We didn't get much sleep, and were awake and up for dawn:

The fishermen were out early, the poor auld divils:

"Wow, how much did all that cost?"
All in for tours, transport from city, boat, every meal for the three days, staying on the boat, and treks, guides, etc etc
$65US - so about 50euro. Not bad! :)