Halong Bay....

Halong Bay was a bit of an adventure, We were picked up and driven up to Halong Bay. I guess Long means Dragon which a the name  our guide and the name of alot of the islands...3000 islands...there's even some baby dragon island somewhere...imagine being  a pirate back in the day and finding your way around all the islands. Halong Bay is well known for crystal blue waters. It's was a bit gloomy but the water cleared up once we were inside the bay.

 We went into a cave called the Amazing caves where the water have made all really large and elaborate caves under the islands...there were cravings said to be made naturally of all sorts of images...a Buddha, a Dragon, a Frog, and a Tortoise. It's funny how all the locations I've been to so far talk about the 4 pillars or animals ...like the dragon...the phoenix...the tiger and the tortoise...all meanings have slipped my mind at the moment...i'm sure it's strength, properity...

After this we went kayaking in the Bay where the water was much clearer, it was a great way to see you're way around the islands...and see the floating villages and houses where people live and stay at the islands all their lives. These lovely ladies would come around and

sell you anything from fruit, to beers and 

chips off the boat.

Floating Villages

These lovely ladies would come around and sell you anything from fruit to beers and chips off the boat. We snuck a few beers onto our boat to drink in the evening..it was like being back in university and sneaking around to find a drink...:) During the evening we went fishing off the boat...well it was more like...us sitting there chatting with our bamboo fishing poles and watching the fish swim by our bait..:)

We had a really good group of people on the cruise..a couple from New York who were traveling for about 3.5 months. I might met them again in the Phu Quoc Islands of Vietnam. There was also two girls from Leeds
who were traveling who were traveling around the world. All of us were
swapping stories about where we're going and what to do in
different places and countries. It was a great time and hopefully

i'll run into them again in Cambodia.

 

And last but not least....is the fighting
chicken islands...if you look really hard
you can see two chickens fighting .
This was a really big attraction on
the tour Peck...Peck...lol

Still a bit cold