Sunday 30 August

Ha Long Bay - travel writers try to describe it, pictures attempt to show it, even Top Gear have had the three stooges competing in a motorbike race against each other, across part of Vietnam to get there. It is currently in the race to be voted one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world. It is truly phenomenal.

We left at 8.00am on a tourist bus to complete the 193km journey from Hanoi. The route began similarly to that of our journey to Lang Son, out of Hanoi, across the Red River and onto the main road to China. We travelled as far as Bac Ninh, an hour's ride and then we turned northeast towards Ha Long City.

As expected it was incredibly hot and very humid. The landscape was much flatter here. The water lilies were smaller, more genteel and a beautiful lilac colour. As we drove further there seemed to be more and more building works going on. During our comfort break I asked our guide Tam about them. A lot of the building in this area is for industrial purposes and it shows. The tall thin buildings are residential. Here, as in Ireland, the Vietnamese buy their own homes. They borrow money from the banks just as we do and pay it back over a period of time. Unless, of course they are lucky enough to be given a plot of land by their family on which they can build.

We passed a huge coal-fired power station belching black smoke into the air, it was absolutely huge, Battersea power station would have paled into insignificance next to it. It provided the power for the whole area. Canon, Sanyo and Fujisawa were just some of the companies already here. Canada has an International School here, so they too have a presence. China also has interests in the area.

Just as quickly as this blot appeared on the landscape we were back into the visual splendour that we have come to expect. Lush vegetation, lots of banana trees, water buffalo and cattle.

As we neared Ha Long City the skies darkened, a mist dropped from nowhere, lightening flashed and the heavens opened. The rain bounced off the road, off the pavements and off the people. Some of the smarter street side vendors quickly changed their wares from sandals to wellies! Dogs ran for cover whilst the residents took refuge under the canvas covers belonging to the street vendors. Large summer sun umbrellas suddenly found a new use.

Muddy red rivulets ran off the pavements on to the roads as the clay mixed with the water, pot holes filled rapidly and you could hardly see out of the bus windows. I have never been caught in anything like it - amazing.

It started to ease off as we neared Ha Long Bay, the mist lifted, the rain softened and our first view of the Bay was looked like ghostly shapes appearing in the distance. Ha Long is made up of over 2000 small islands and islets. It would take over 7 years to visit every single one. We were heading for one of the most popular. Hang Sung Sot.

We pulled into the port and collected out belongs and waited for our guide to get our tickets. Our boat was too big to enter the harbour itself so we boarded a tender that took us out to our floating hotel. The view from the water was amazing. There were quite a lot of other junks in the harbour jostling for position, passengers both boarding and alighting. As we sailed out into the bay all became quieter, calmer. The islets rose out of the water like small icebergs - you didn't really know how much was submerged underneath. These limescale rock formations were covered with vegetation, trees and the like.

We boarded the boat and received our room keys. The rooms were spacious, beautifully styled with mahogany floors and fixtures and fittings. The separate bathroom had a toilet and was also a wet room with two showers. The boat did really look like the promotional material - most unusual.

Lunch was served, fish soup, fresh king prawns, spicy spring rolls, grilled fish in lemongrass, ginger and coriander. Chicken, beef, fresh spinach with garlic and sauce, steamed rice, with water melon for dessert. Delicious.

During lunch we cruised towards our destination, Hang Sung Sot. This island has three interlinked caves which have been lit to maximum efect. Stalagmites and stalactites have formed and in some places formed, a monkey, a bear and even female Buddha to mention a few. We reached this island by tender and then we climbed up a maze of steps to reach the caves and then we went down. The cave doing nothing to ease the humidity levels. Every now and again we felt a drip of cold water from the ceiling but that was the only relief against the heat. You can only walk one way through the caves and so as we moved from one to the other we steadily climbed further upwards. The air became quite dense and we frequently needed to take on water. As we emerged from the last cave we peered out across the bay, hundreds of the islets lay before us. It was truly stunning. We then began the climb down towards the other side of the islet back to the tender.

From here we cruised around to another part of the bay where we got into kayaks and paddled under our own steam for a while. It was brilliant, weaving in and out of the houses on water, avoiding other smaller craft and kayaks! We did this for nearly an hour, but my arms gave up before our time was up so we returned to the tender from where some of our fellow passengers had chosen to watch. The tender took us back to our boat where we were invited to put on our swimming gear and jump overboard. Not one to turn down a swim I did the former but took the more cautious route and climbed down the ladder instead. The water was very warm and very salty. I swam a short way from the boat and then returned. Dennis watched from the deck along with some of the others. All the time small craft, like punts, kept approaching the boat laden down with tins of Tiger beer, iced soft drinks, biscuits, crisps etc. someone even spotted boxes of boxer shorts on one. All of these boats are operated by the local women. Only so many are allowed to operate so they form a sort of co-operative per boat and take it in terms to paddle out to the tourist boats. It is the way they support their families.

After showering we went back up to the sun deck to cool off with drinks before dinner. Dinner was served at 7.00 and was along similar lines to lunch. The boat then anchored and we stayed in the bay overnight. It was very relaxing.


Sunday 30 August

Breakfast was at 7.30 following which we had to check out of our rooms so that the crew could prepare them for the next set of guests. However, we took the scenic route back to the harbour arriving around 11.45. Just cruising around was so peaceful. The whole experience was superb and possibly insupassable if we were here just for a holiday. We're not and despite the utter beauty we and our fellow travellers felt we were just marking time, we are all waiting. Don't get me wrong we are all extremely glad we went and wouldn't have missed it but we felt that maybe we hadn't fully appreciated the experience.

On arrival at the port we were taken for lunch and then driven back to Hanoi. All the 7 of us really wanted at that point was to get back to Hanoi. 3 and a half hours later we pulled up in front of the hotel. For the first time in a long time all I wanted was a nice cup of Barry's Tea! Now there's Irish for you.

This evening we are just going to slob in front of the Grandprix with chocolates. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have news of the GnR ceremony.