Halong Bay and Cat Ba island

Halong Bay and Cat Ba island were a welcome break from busy Hanoi. We spent one night on board a junk and one at Cat Ba island - unfortunatelly the weather was not as good as we hoped, but none the less experience was great.


Port Halong City.

Catching up some sleep on board our junk.


A floating 'village' in Halong Bay.

Enjoying the weather in Cat Ba town.

View from our hotel - Cat Ba fishing fleet.

Pearl farm in Halong Bay.

A misty day in the bay - a ghost ship island.

Hello sailor!

The crazy irish still following us :)

Missbehavig crew was thrown over board.

Beautiful views despite the gloom.


Visiting a 'dragon's home' Hang Sung Sot - cave in the bay.

The cave's enormous main chamber.

At the cave entrance.

Climbing down from the cave.

Local store - see also the amazing yacht for 'classic sailing cruises' in the background.

Riding a bike to visit Cat Ba's national park.

Due to the rain we couldn't go to the jungle (too many snakes), so we ended up sitting at a local shelter and tasting this lovely snake liquor. After tasting, we noticed that there were also 2 dead chicks in the bottom of the bottle... yak!!!

Kayaking in the Bay... we went through thia opening into a beautiful lagoon.

Cute, eh?

Close up of the local delicacy... never again thx!