Day 45 - 47 Halong Bay

We decided to take a three day tour of the Halong Bay area, which is located about 3 hours east of Hanoi on the Sea of China. This area is famous for the 3,000 small islands off the coast.

Day 1: We left Hanoi in a minivan with 15 other people to go to Halong Bay and then boarded a sleeper boat to set off out to sea for the next couple days. After lunch on the boat we stopped on an island called Vinh Halong Bay to see a cave that is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It definitely deserved to be one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, because the cave formations were fantastic! We then sailed into an old floating fishing village where the people sustain themselves by fishing and living in homes on the sea year round. We boarded a small motorboat that took us into some of the bays of the islands and specifically showed us where one of the James Bond movies was filmed. From there we went to another island to get into kayaks that we could use to paddle around and watch the sunset (by far the highlight of the day!) The day had been a bit cloudy all day, but we got to see an amazing sunset!! Then we had dinner and slept on the boat that night.

Day 2: After breakfast on the boat we docked on Cat Su Island, which is a national park on one of the islands, and boarded a van that took us to the foothill of the mountain range on the island. We trekked to the top of the mountain and down in about 3 1/2 hours to see the views of all the islands. After the trek we checked into a hotel in a small town on the island and hiked around the beaches and town for the afternoon to enjoy the scenery! I am not obsessed with sunsets or anything, but we sat on our balcony that overlooked the fishing bay and watched another beautiful sunset!

Day 3: Today we got up and boarded the boat back to the mainland. After arriving in Hanoi late in the afternoon we grabbed dinner and boarded another bus for the 17 hour bus ride to Hoi An!!

NOTE: If you follow our trip via a map we followed the coast all the way to Ho Chi Minh City and although I don't have a lot of great picture we really got to see a lot of the countryside and villages via the bus that cost about $50 to get about 40 hours from North to South over the week. We literally followed the coast along the ocean and even when we were in the mountains the coast was right below. It was fun just sitting and looking out the window at all the surroundings!!