Halong Bay

Tim Bev Carolyn David

Some of the Cooks artwork

Halong Bay

The Lagoon Explorer II, our boat and one of the smallest of this companies fleet of seven junks
The one that is smaller has a crew of 4 and takes one couple as passengers.

The town is right up against the limestone rock

This very young man stopped his rowing to give us a wave

Our friend David checks on a students work

Tim and Bev enjoy the view from our deck lounge chairs

Fishing boats

Our vietnamese boat paddler

We had all our meals out on deck

Halong Bay is one of the most magnificant natural splendours of Asia. We visited this beautiful site while on fall vacation in Vietnam. The boat we spent two days on board was a Chinese junk style boat. It included six crew members to cook, navigate, clean and take care of its six passengers. Our fabulous experience included swimmingoff the boat, relaxing on the sun deck kayaking from the boat, top-notch seven course meals expertly prepared from fresh seafood, fruits and signature vietnamese dishes. The pleasurable experience came with an elegant en-suite cabin, complete with yellow sails. We had the rare opportunity to tour sea caves, discovered in 1999, until then used only by fishermen. Halong Bay is home to a floating village of vietnamee families that are fishermen and make their living on boats along the bay.

We were allowed the rare opportunity of touring a houseboat floating school complete with a teacher and children. They row their boats to and from school each day . We were ushered into the floating village by a young vietnamese woman rowing a typical long boat. It carried all four of us, through the protected village among the rocks, safe from storms and typhoons. The supply boat carries groceries and household goods from house to house that families buy each week. The fishermen were twisiting and reeling their nets, children were playing, and uniquely every house had a dog for protection. The Bay is full of freshwater fish, oyster farms, and more. The only way to access this city is by boat, for medical or other needs the children learn at a very early age the necessary skill of rowing a boat. Each housboat was a differentpastel color, had beautiful specilized decorations, and the daily tasks of life like washing was evident on our short trip through town.

There are over 3,000 limestone islands jutting out of emerald green water. There are secluded coves, coral beaches, and hidden lagoons in Halong Bay. Our very brief glimpse begs us to someday return for an unlimited amount of time to this world heritage site