Wednesday, Oct 26 - Hanoi - Halong Bay

After a nice night’s sleep we all piled into the van for the four hour drive to Halong Bay.  

Chickens going to market.

After about two hours we stopped at a “rest stop”.  The gigantic building was full of all types of tourist souvenirs including clothing, embroidery, carvings, jewelry, local food and snacks, and Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies.  The stop was also swarming with tourists and tour buses. 

At noon we arrived at the Halong Bay.  

Upon arrival at the boat dock we were treated to cold towels and iced Vietnamese cinnamon tea.  We then boarded the tender for a short ride through a maze of other boats to our boat.  

There was an interesting welcoming committee as we neared our boat.

We could see the islands of Halong Bay from the shore.  The cruise out into the bay to the islands was slow and leisurely.  The bay has 1969 islands and there are over 600 cruise boats…so we were in a flotilla of boats heading out into the bay. 

After lunch and some cruising we transferred to tenders again and went to the floating village of Cuavan.  The government has recently transferred a number of the villages and villagers to land based villages to try to protect the environment of Halong Bay.  

The village included shops on boats and boats outfitted with large fishing nets.

We transferred to a sampan and were rowed around the village.  

Rowing the leisurely way - with your feet.

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Watch the rower
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We stopped a few times for Tara to give out gifts of toiletries and candies. 

The islands of the bay are just gorgeous and we lingered a long time on the top deck to enjoy the islands and watch the boats floating.