Halong Bay-

and that is Halong Bay, tourist destination with that I should have used all capital letters for.  On the highway from Hanoi to Halong, four hour bus ride— it was the highway and the towns - not the distance that made it four hours, we passed numerous tour busses— ours was the fastest (nanny nanny boo boo) (also perhaps the scariest?)(only to motor cycles and cars).  First day was overcast and threatening.

The bay has nearly two thousand karst islands and you have seen them in a movie or two or three.  They are stunning— and beautiful.

Our boat, the Carina, nine cabins, one of the smaller overnight boats I think, or so my unscientific guess would make.  There were hundreds of boats similar to this, hundreds.

Told ya there were lots of other boats.  Sometimes you could see dozens of boats.  and in the morning when the day trip boast came through it was like a train.

Very very few of the islands had anything like a sandy beach, like two. Well perhaps more, but not many.

We make several stops, one was to go on a hike up one of the islands into a rather large to me cave that had multiple caves. It was well illuminated and had only a few narrow passages.  It did have a lot of people in it.

Some of the rooms were full of stalactites and stalagmites that were large and small.  The ceiling, roof, top? of the cave was an impressive wavy configuration.

the view from the exit of the cave.  The entrance was also high.

Patt climbed 400 steps to the top of another of the islands, I stayed below to swim. Ultimately I only got knee deep into the water after confirming that what a guy I met at the little beach at this island told me - that the water was a bit chilly "but it was alright after you got in".  I asked him where he was from and he said New York and I said it was probably going to be too cold for me and it was.

Our shipmates, less one Londoner who did not make this excursion. The rest include another Britisher, left to right four Australians, Patt and I, four from Mongolia, and two Germans.  An interesting group and I'm sure glad English is the common language! Of the crowd, only the Mongolians and one German had been to the US.

Our ship had sails,  I think for decoration purposes only. It did have a polished wooden
 upper deck which we enjoyed.

The first day was quite overcast but as is obvious, the second was very nice.