Arriving in Halong Bay by Simi

We had an earlyish start ( 7.45) and left the tranquil Tam Coc and headed East for about 3 hours towards Halong Bay. The journey was pretty non- eventful but provided us all an excellent opportunity to catch up with our blog!

We waited at the port where we met our Boat Manager Jimmy. He was very friendly and helpful!

We took a tender out to our boat V Spirit. Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. translates to Bay of the Descending Dragon and I would deffo say this is one of the new seven natural wonders of the world. How could somewhere we have heard SO much about live up to its reputation especially when we saw all the mass of tourists literally being shipped in and shipped out … but I’m so delighted ( and relieved) to say this piece of heaven was truly as wonderous as I had dared to imagine. It is a mystical landscape where thousands of limestone karsts burst breathtakingly skywards from the depths of the sparkling, emerald-green South China Seas.

There are a few stories to how this bay of descending dragons got its name… presumably because of the rolling look of the karst mountains undulating out of the sea that make for incredible photos. Further research refers to the legend that. early Vietnam had to fight off invaders so the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. These dragons spat out jewels and jade which turned into islets that linked together to form a great wall that destroyed the invaders’ ships. After the battle was won, the dragons decided to live in this bay and the place where the mother dragon descended was thus named Ha Long. Who know but I’m sticking with this latter more poetic version !

The V spirit was very nice – our room had the most phenomenal ceiling to floor windows so we could admire the view as soon as we stepped into our room, from our bed, from the loo, brushing our teeth and even whilst having a bath ! The next floor above our bedrooms was the dining room. The food was plentiful and looked fancy .. truthfully ( and maybe controversially) it tasted ok.. a lot of it didn’t taste of anything to me! Nonetheless the dining room was lovely with the appreciated floor to ceiling windows so the views did not have to be missed for a second. The AC was fully effective and the next floor was the open rooftop for ogling the views, enjoying a cocktail or simply reclining on a sun bed

The Bay is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as mentioned already very popular tourist destination. .. a rather large 6-7 million visitors per year!The whole bay has an area of around 1,500km2, which contains approximately 1,969 islands and islets.
Normal limestone mountains are usually found on the ground, however, the the Bay’s limestones are raised from above the water. It’s taken 5000 million years to form Halong Bay to 2000 limestone islands as today.

Once we had checked into our rooms, we were served lunch as we sailed off further into the bay. We discovered quickly
It really is a photo op around every corner under the blazing sun ! Absolutely bowled over by this special place! I am totally captivated by the beauty of this place- a real tonic for the soul
and a cure for the restlessness- total stillness. Utterly enchanting in my eyes!Read more