Day 1 Ha Long Bay Jan 24

On the bus and heading for the bay, which is over four hours away, we pass a woman selling oranges from her bike.

If you can see the detail of the map there is a red dotted line which shows our route down to Cat Ba Island and back on the junk. The trip is 18 km one way.

I'm standing in the lounge area of our boat where the dining tables are.

This is our first view of her is we approached on a small shuttle boat. She looks beautiful. The name of the boat is Elizabeth Sails.

We pull up behind and unload through the small door on the back end. They tie the small boat along side as we will use it again.

The upper deck would have been nice in warmer weather. Today is too cold to sit outside.

The captain looks so young. He gave me the salute when I asked for his picture. All the crew was young but very professional.

Here is the shuttle boat alongside.

The beautiful scenery begins. We didn't have any sun the whole three days but that is normal here.

I love the shades of grey and blue and the fog, or whatever it is, only adds to the effect.

I had to buy a scarf and gloves and wear all my coats, even inside the boat. Fortunately we had heat in the cabins and I went there when I was cold.

A junk with her sail up.

This fellow is the pilot of the small boat. Out first adventure on the small boat is to a cave.

The Hang Sung Sot cave known by the locals as the surprising cave. We climbed up to the opening you see.

Here is one photo. It was an impressive cave but difficult to show in pictures.

We came out the cave exit to this view. I must say that Ha Long bay is all I expected and more.

We docked here to go to the cave.

This rock formation jutting down really resembles a pair of feet.

Looking down on the bay from the cave.

Looking down as well.

Sigh ...........!!!

On our next stop this afternoon we got to kayak around some of the rocks. The man with me was also on our boat. Good thing one of us knew how to steer.

Squid! I just don't understand. People get these things from the ocean and say to themselves that looks good enough to eat, and they throw it in the pan.

If you enjoy seafood this is the tour for you. Every meal had at least 8 different kinds of fish. They very kindly prepared some vegetarian dishes for me.

Looking out at the tour boats pulled in at the kayaking place.

Well, it took us all morning to get here but the afternoon was wonderful. I shall sleep well tonight, and tomorrow we have another adventure on an island.