Halong Bay - Hanoi

Tuesday, March 17th

The sun didn't come up like thunder out of China across the bay, unfortunately.

Unfortunately, it was drizzling slightly so early breakfast (7:00am) had to be indoors.

We were on our way at 6:30am so we could get to our next destination, and eventually back in port by 11:00am.

We were going to visit a large floating fishing village which also had a nearby pearl farm.

It was also breakfast time on some of the fishing boats - OHS goes out the window when you have to work and eat simultaneously on a wooden boat.

The floating fishing village was actually a series of smaller "villages", and the route of of excursion was well marked.

We were transferred to small wooden boats in groups of six, and rowed around the red route marked on the map above.

We passed a number of small collections of house, roped together and tied to a large rock on the bank. They used to use polystyrene for floatation, but these days they use plastic barrels - it cuts down on pollution caused by the polystyrene disintegrating over time.

This net is used to catch squid at night when the powerful lights are turned on.

There's a small souvenir shop on this floating village, and a school apparently refurbished by some students from a Sydney private girl's school.

We walked around for 10 minutes...

Went to the end of a fairly newly constructed jetty...

And were on our way again, this time towards a large tunnel under a nearby island.

Through the tunnel we could see large commercial boats indicating we were near some kind of port. We could also see that there was a swell coming through the tunnel, so any suggestion we might go through it was dispelled.

Our guide decided to show his prowess at rowing, as the French and Americans did their best to look confident.

Then we headed back via he pearl farm where our tender was waiting to pick us up.

Along the way another local collected more rubbish.

The pearl farm also acted as a fish farm...

But the main reason we were here was to learn something about pearl production...

Just a little staged, we thought, but interesting nevertheless.

Followed by the usual pressure to buy - now I know nothing about pearls, their quality, or their value, so I wasn't a good target.

Bye bye...

Back aboard and Prue needed her caffeine fix, so I had one too. It wasn't a latte, and it wasn't quality coffee, but it did the job.

No sooner were we aboard, than we set "sail" for port - we think these barges are carrying rice, but it could be anything.

We weren't going fast, but we clearly weren't as far from base as we thought. By the time we arrived, we'd "checked out" of our cabins, had brunch, and the crew had remade the boat for the next load of passengers who would set sail at 12:30pm, presumably.

Our faithful driver was already waiting for us, so we departed for Hanoi just before 12:0 midday. Along the way I got some photos I had missed on the way out. This one of an incredible house under construction:

And this of a very neat market garden growing quite a large array of vegetables.

Including a half hour Happy Room stop, we were back in Hanoi in three and a half hours. In the short time we had been away, the temperature had gone up, the rain had stopped, and the sun was even coming out!

We had a G&T in the City View Cafe (top left) and dinner in the nearby Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant (top right). This place was so good, we made a booking for Saturday night - our last night in Vietnam.