March 6 Hanoi to Halong Bay

We boarded the bus in Hanoi and drove for 3 hours to Halong Bay. As usual we drove through beautiful scenery and didn’t stop. We saw thousands of rice patties right beside the road and surrounding little towns, but the only stop was a concrete gas station. We arrived at noon and boarded the boat – a large junk that had 12 cabins. Joan and I had cabin number 1 on the upper deck and we had a little balcony we shared with the only other cabin on the upper deck. The scenery in Halong Bay exceeded my expectations. Even in the semi fog the islands were awe-inspiring. Large limestone monoliths rise straight up out of the ocean. The view is 360 degrees. And as we travelled, more inspiring scenery kept appearing. We crammed a lot into day 1. We landed on an island and toured a cave. There are several large caves throughout the bay. After the cave, Katherine and I kayaked through the islands for an hour and then we boarded again for more spectacular scenery before supper. At dark we anchored in a bay and Joan and Katherine enjoyed Baileys coffee whilst I sipped beer and the universe was in order.