We’re up early this morning to be ready for our transfer to Halong Bay around 8am. It’s a 3.5 hour van ride but it goes by quite fast as we chat to the others sharing our ride. We take a loo break at the halfway point and visit a store which makes porcelain and lacquered pots on location. There are also pearls and lots of semi precious stones on sale, but this seems to be the case everywhere we go!
 |
| Pot Factory |
 |
| Lizards in Whiskey...for virility? |
We had been warned that Halong Harbor is quite hideous and extremely busy, but the Indochina-Junk embarkation area is actually quiet and pretty enough. Our guide, Tony, introduces himself and we transfer to the boat shortly after. We are 16 guests onboard which seems like a nice number of people.
 |
| Halong City Harbor |
 |
| Dragon's Pearl I |
 |
| Our room :) |
 |
| One of the 4 dining tables |
 |
| The Sun Deck... Just in case the sun does decide to make an appearance! |
As we sail away amidst hundreds of limestone outcroppings, we feel quite Zen J
An 8 course lunch is served shortly after we set off on Indochina Junk's Dragon's Pearl I, and it is all quite delicious: lotus seed and red bean soup, salad, clams with pineapple, prawns, fried oysters, with herbs, fish with ginger and chili, all wrapped up with some fresh fruit.
 |
Red Bean and Lotus Seed Soup
 |
| Clams with Pineapple |
|
 |
| Deep-fried Prawns with Garlic and Butter |
 |
| Deep Fried Vong Vieng Minced Oysters with Herbs |
 |
| Seasonal Fresh Fruit |
We have a bit of a nap after lunch then go out for an hour’s kayaking amongst the forest of enormous limestone karsts – there are actually quite a few beautiful little white sand beaches but it’s certainly not bathing suit weather!
Dinner’s another 10 course meal – thank goodness we’re only spending a couple of days on the boat or they’d be rolling us off! Then we try out a little squid fishing, or more precisely watch 3 of our boating companions give it a go – without much success… Our guide did catch five whilst we were having dinner though! The water is full of phosphorescents so it’s fun to watch the fish swim about leaving a trail of blue light in their wake.
 |
| The squid caught by Tony |
We head off to bed, but are very excited for Nicole when, a little while later, we hear her squeal with delight when her patience pays finally off and she catches a squid!!
No comments:
Post a Comment