Halong Bay - Most stunning landscape yet?

We spent 2 days and 1 night upon a beautiful indochinese junk. It was a tour organised by Handspan and was highly recommended by lots of travel sites and books. We were not disappointed. We travelled in style and comfort with better facilities then the Hostels we have been staying in. The staff were very helpful and keen to make sure we had the best possible time aboard. But the luxury of the boat was less then half as impressive as Halong Bay itself. 

The Bay is peppered with literally thousands of these forest clad limestone out crop that are shaped into beautiful objects that are named. (this one above is meant to look like a turtle)

Travelling out on a bamboo raft we went through a small cave that links the main waterway to a secret cove. This secret cove was amazingly peaceful and we saw some of the local monkey who live on the islands circling this secluded cove.

We were taken to another island where we got a chance to swim in the very warm salt water. Very relaxing after we had climbed up a large island to get views from the top. We had plenty of time to relax on deck in these beautiful surroundings before settling down for the awesome sunset over the bay. I apologise for the many pictures below but it was so beautiful and no one image did a good job of catching how it looked. 

 

     

    

The Food on the boat was amazing at every meal with us getting lots of chances to try new stuff and preparing extra dishes if we couldn't eat anything. Dinned with this level of service made a nice change from the normal back packer grub. 

After dinner we got a chance to do some late night squid fishing. A curious activity requiring a powerful lamp. Simple rod and line with a fluorescent hook/float but no real bait. The simple enough method was to drop the line so the hook fell down 1 or 2 meters and then in a jerking movement move the hook up and to the side. I was a little sceptical about if this would trick a real squid into impaling itself onto a hook. But after watching the staff catch 3 in a row I gave it a shot and after 30-45min of effort i was rewarded with a suicidal squid jumping onto my hook and letting me lift it up onto deck (ink squirting everywhere as he came up. Mine is the 2nd biggest in the bucket. After this success I went back up to the main deck to watch the night sky and chat with a delightful couple from Australia that me and Michelle had made friends with earlier in the day.

The next morning we sailed past a floating fishing village and on to visit the largest (discovered) limestone cave in Halong Bay. After climbing up the side of one of the larger island we went under the rock to explore. Can you see a the shape of a monkey climbing up the rock outcrop in the picture on the right?

  

Can you see the face in this outcrop?

The cave system was amazing and pictures in the low light don't do it justice.But I can promise you that like the rest of Halong Bay the sights are stunning and should be a must see item on any trip to South East Asia.