Where The Dragon Descends

Halon Bay
The bay where the dragon descends (translation) must be one of the most impressive natural terrains on earth. Literally thousands of limestone islands jut from the sea to create an amazing patchwork of green among the grey of the sky and sea. Unfortunately it is even colder here than in Hanoi so we often have to retreat to the confines of our boat, but the sight is still magnificent and unparalleled. We get shown around on a little junk in the traditional style, many of which litter the bay showing other tourists the scene. The decor on the ship is very pleasant with en-suites and quaint wooden furniture – we a apparently have the budget option but it’s pretty luxurious, god knows what the others get! At £25 we get transfers to and from the hotel 4 massive meals and a night on the boat.
The first stop is an island cave that blows you away. Initially the view from the top is worth the stop but as we progress into the cave each successive catacomb is more and more impressive. Stalactites and stalagmites create eerie patterns in the rock face throughout the cavern, which is truly enormous, stretching for maybe a kilometre through the island. From the top we enjoy majestic views across the bay as tourists pose for their photos.
Comically, Vietnamese women row small fishing boats out to our junk, initially I think they are fishing and take a picture, however, we soon learn they are trying to sell crisps and beers at ridiculous prices to the tourists. Our boat also takes advantage of the situation charging 30000 (£1) for a beer, we slyly sink back some gin in our room to save on costs.
The boat group unfortunately comprises of a mostly reserved bunch, some of whom are also pretty grumpy (maybe due to the bad weather). There is only one other English girl called Kirsten, with whom we have a laugh and enjoy a few drinks later in the day, you can rely on us Brits to be piss-heads (sounds like she has been raving her way across Asia).We get speaking with a really nice pair from Korea but they don’t drink, so I bring my tunes out onto deck after lunch to drown out the Vietnamese karaoke channel and hopefully get some atmosphere going: however, everyone retires at about 9 and not many get on the beers. It is a bit of shame we can’t get any kind of party going, but maybe it’s for the best. I wake up with a monster hang over off the cheap local gin.
I sack off the kayaking in the morning preferring to get some extra crash in my warm bed rather than have a splash in the freezing water. We didn’t bring a change of clothes and I don’t fancy wandering about with a wet arse all morning. Also, in the night the engine was generating a lot of smoke and this dried out my throat and stopped me sleeping properly so I’m feeling pretty wiped out. Try and get a room on the bottom deck next time! We enjoy cruising round the bay again, taking in the sights, then we stop off at a fishing village that also has branched out into tourism. There is a floating school and whole community on the water: the people here grow up on the water and live there for their entire lives without ever staying on dry land. We charter a small boat to see the caves that go through the islands, this is well worthwhile and the highlight of the trip as we see the beauty of the islands close-up.
We have to wait around a lot and get swapped from bus to bus on the way back: but hey! We’re in Vietnam so what do you expect, all in all it was well worth the money and I start to feel like I’m enjoying Vietnam despite the cold – I mean come on its not exactly Manchester weather is it!