Halong Bay - Good things come to those who wait

Our first excursion here in Vietnam went from Hanoi to Halong Bay. We were meant to go for 3 days / 2 nights. However, when we got to Halong Bay on Saturday we spent the entire day basically practising our patience. Reason being there had been a tropical storm in the area and the local tourism ministery (who has to give the ultimate permission for boats to depart the harbour) didn't want any negative press. Therefore they decided to play it safe and grounded all boats on that day ... with an announcement that finally came at 5.00 pm.

So all we got to see on day 1 of Halong Bay were some islands in the mist in the distance. Morale was rather low at this stage amongst the assembled "united nations" of tourists...

We were then given the option to go back to Hanoi (which is about a 4 hour drive "Vietnamese style" in a cramped mini bus) or take a chance and stay overnight in a hotel in Halong Bay and hope for better weather the next day.

We decided to do the latter and checked into a hotel in Halong Bay - because the prospect of another gruelling 4 hour drive that evening just didn't sound that appealing at all.

The next morning the view out of the hotel window was like this - ...oh no!!! Basically rain, rain and more rain:

Especially, as this Sunday was a special day: Lucy's 9th birthday! We decided to just ignore the weather and have a big Birthday breakfast instead. When we finally got going around mid-day the rain had stopped and we got the good news that the boats were able to go out.

What followed in the next 24 hours was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far: The boat cruise through Halong Bay, which is an archipelago of approx. 3,000 islands. Imagine a tropical rainforest where all mountains are shaped like sureloaf mountain in Rio de Janeiro and then a mega flood happens, which means that just the mountain tops are visible - well, that's pretty much what Halong Bay looks like. Amazing!!!

We visited a cave, stopped at a floating market, went swimming, watched monkeys climb the cliffs and undertook a kayak trip through a water cave underneath one of those mountains. Plus had great Vietnamese meals onboard and a good night sleep on our boat.

It was really a great day to remember (...and not just for the birthday girl). (NB: More photos are on the German language blog entry for today.)

Today on Sunday we got back to Halong Bay at noon and then "enjoyed" our mini bus trip back to Hanoi. Well, the traffic in Vietnam in itself is worth a story for another day...

After a detour because of a bus accident that happened just in front of our bus and the obligatory stop at a Vietnamese souvenir mega-store we finally managed to get back to Hanoi. Exhausted, but full of wondeful memories from Halong Bay...