Day 17 – Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

January 10th 2009

Alarm goes off at 6:45am as today we have an 8am pickup to take us to the legendary natural wonder that is Ha Long Bay, the bay of the descending dragon – well you can't ask for much more than that!

Breakfast and checkout completed we meet our new guide, Dwan, and our driver Comg. A younger crew than our Mekong team and a smaller car, but no lacking in enthusiasm as we make our way through the Hanoi rush hour.

The best news of the day though is the weather which is beautifully sunny. We'd been scared by the English we met in Hoi An who didn't get out to Ha Long Bay due to the poor weather ensuring that the rock formations would be completely hidden by fog, Dwan assures us that sunny in Hanoi means it should be fine in Ha Long Bay.

As is only natural I suppose, the first 30 minutes of the trip (it'll apparently take at least 3 hours to do the 100 miles to Ha Long Bay) is an almost constant barrage from Dwan with facts and questions about our trip so far. He is added to a long list of people on this trip who are incredibly excited that we're from Manchester and even more so that we actually live close to Old Trafford. News of Ronaldo's car crash is quickly relayed to us, although it's more to do with the fact that he had a brand new car the next day than the crash itself which causes a certain amount of disbelief. Dwan, however, has a bit of a fame story of his own being recently the guide for Jeremy Clarkson and family so, suitably impressed with each other we head off along National Route 1, the same road we took out to the Mekong Delta approximately 1,000 miles away. Up here it's much more like a classic dual carriageway, there are no shops alongside the road and hardly any other vehicles at all actually, so the pace is good – a steady 80kph of course.

First stop is ABC, a big warehouse of a building which doubles as a roadside service cafe and purveyor of arts and crafts. If we'd like to buy something that would be fine – thanks Dwan. This time though we take much more of an interest as this is a setup using disabled labour – many of whom are working in the warehouse itself. We're assured of a Manchester United discount from the salesman who is now following us at a discreet distance of about 4 feet all round the displays. The merchandise is excellent and we buy 2 silk embroideries which will be on display soon after we get home – especially as we get this morning's special price which is even less than the Manchester United discount we've already been promised!

Back on the road and after a few snoozes – it's warm in the back of the car, honest – we reach Ha Long 30 minutes ahead of schedule, it's taken us just under 3 hours.

After waiting for some other passengers – yes, we're actually going to have to share the boat, disgraceful – we take a small boat out to our Junk which will be our home for the next 24 hours or so. There's 14 people on this boat in cabins of 2, that doesn't include the crew, who all seem incredibly young, or the gaggle of guides who have accompanied the 6 or so parties who are making up this trip, most are French, just one couple who I think are Dutch. Dwan tells us that after dinner tonight he and the other guides will be taken off the boat to sleep on a different boat nearby. The crew, it turns out, sleep wherever they can put a sleeping bag down for the night.

I'm avoiding shellfish completely at the moment as it was most probably the reason for my illness when we hit Cambodia so despite my love of prawns and crab, it's simply not worth the risk. Fortunately Dwan has phoned this info through to the boat as lunch consists of about 7 very small courses, half of which are prawns or crab! There is certainly some curiosity when I'm brought out different stuff to everyone else, but at least they've catered for me which is great.

We're cruising into Ha Long Bay now which is straight out of the Man With The Golden Gun. There's a slight haze in the distance but that just adds to the mystical quality of the rocky outcrops further in the distance. There's no regularity to the rocks, everywhere you look is different and the outlook is constantly changing as we cruise along slowly and without so much as a ripple to disturb the gentle peace of it all.

Although there's not many people out here – plenty of tourist junks – there are some small communities actually living on the water. Some permanently, some move around. We just can't imagine living this way but Dwan points out that these people made the choice to live like this and, incredibly, believes that any kids they have up to the age of 9 or 10 won't have stepped foot once onto dry land.

After a while we stop and get into the small boat to be taken to shore, this is to visit some caves which have been naturally worn out of the rocks. While nothing like this is standard, for descriptive purposes it's the usual stalagmites, stalactites and weird and wonderful lookalike rock formations which Dwan takes pleasure in pointing out to us, all good stuff.

Back on the boat and we visit another island, this has a look out point at the top which we're told is 450 steps up. The island was allegedly named by Ho Chi Minh himself after the first Russian into space, but unless the Vietnamese know something we don't, or Yuri has had a name change to something close to Tito, then it isn't. We brave the steps in the hope of seeing the sun set over the rocks, it's hard work as the steps are pretty steep but I'm not having it that it's 450, Sarah speculates it's maybe 450 up and down which sounds more plausible.

The view from the top is stunning, on one side the lowering sun reflecting beautifully onto the islands, while on the other looking into the sun itself through the haze, its light shining off the water, is breathtaking. I ramp up the shutter speed and take some photos which I hope will capture it all. Unfortunately we can't wait for the sun to actually set, while it's going down rapidly, the rest of our party who came up the steps are long gone and we worry about holding everyone up. The sun does eventually set as we head back to the junk, it's beautiful but hasn't turned the sky completely orange so I don't feel we missed out by coming down too soon.

When the sun does go down it get much colder and we spend some time on deck before heading into our cabin for some reading ahead of dinner.

Dinner is 9 courses – all tiny – with more prawns and crab, but the chef's got me sorted out with alternatives so all is well.

We've moored for the night in a sheltered natural harbour so when we head back onto deck after dinner it's all incredibly still and with no wind has gone warm enough to sit out for a while. The moon is full and incredibly bright which provides us with a clear view of the imposing rocks around us. I'm just a little disappointed (never satisfied I know) that with a clear sky and no man made light pollution we're denied a good view of the stars by the sheer brightness of the moon.

Back inside and after enjoying some wine while playing the extended holiday game, further details on request, we retire to our cabin. Breakfast is at 7:30am tomorrow and while I'm enjoying making the most of the day, it would be nice to get a decent night's sleep soon!