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Sailing in Halong Bay

Halong Bay is a designated World Heritage Site with mystical landscapes of limestone islets and floating villages.  We boarded a boat early in the morning and weaved in and out of them.  We had a bit of a delay on the boat, when it stopped for no reason and we started drifting into a rock face.  I went down below to see  what was happening (to see if I could help -hahaha) …only to see all the floor boards were lifted up and everyone was in the engine room while steam was pouring out. All I could think of was Sarah & Mikael’s story of their diving ship hitting rocks and sinking in Thailand!  All was good though – it took them about half an hour and they replaced a hose and we were on our way again.  Some of the floating villages were oyster pearl farms and others were fishing communities.  Attached to their house would be a netted pool – they would catch their fish in nets (not hooks) and scoop them into their pools.  Then the middle man would come along and purchase which ever fish he wanted and make the boat ride back to land to sell the fish to the restaurants and markets.  The fish is still live or if it is dead – it is freshly dead.

The water is so warm. We spent the afternoon swimming and kayaking around and through the islets and karsts. There were only 8 people on our boat and we would kayak around to deserted beaches where we didnt see anybody. It was perfect.  Lots of fish everywhere – not as colorful though as the fish in Thailand.   You asked if it is smoggy (from the photos) – but it isn’t smog…it is just the air from the heat and humidity.  The temperatures have been on average around 30 degrees.  It is clear in the morning, but by 9am, it starts getting hot and the visibility becomes less.  We also explored a huge cave that is a haven for fisherman during the monsoons and lastly visited Monkey Island.  Monkey Island had a steep hike up to the most beautiful view point…and of course, it had lots of monkeys.  And the best part of the day was that Elias did not get a sunburn. (this is a big deal!)

© 2012 Maria Davis · All Rights Reserved.