Hạ Long Bay 2013

Soon after breakfast bus to Vịnh Hạ Long - Hạ Long Bay, about 160 km and 2.5 hours due east of Hà Nội, for our overnight cruise. Lucky for us the sky was pretty clear, although punctuated with some pretty spectacular cloud formations that echoed the chain of limestone kharst islands below while the harbour was shaded in various dramatic azure hues. 

I think, but haven’t been able to confirm, that the bay is the very eastern extremity of the Hoàng Liên Son mountain range, before it trails of into the sea. Human habitation of the area has been documented to around 18,000 years ago, which means humans probably lived in the area for much longer. It is also notable for being the location where Mongol ships were prevented, during the third Mongol invasion of Việt Nam (1287-8), from sailing up the nearby Sông Đá Bạch - Bạch Đằng River -  by steel-tipped wooden stakes placed in the river which impaled Kublai Khan's fleet as they attempted to pass over them in their heavy wooden vessels while pursuing the lighter "retreating" Việt Namese vessels. During the Second South-East Asian War (Việt Nam War) the Hạ Long was heavily mined by the US Navy, which remains a problem today.

We cruised during lunch and later swapped into smaller boats for a closer look at the bay, including passing through a small portal in one of the khasts into an amazing near vertical towering kharst lined bowl- unfortunately despoiled by some Russian graffiti left over from “goodwill mission” in the friendless 1970’s. Then over to Hòn Ti Tốp - Ti Tốp Island for swimming, relaxing or for the keen climbing the stairs to the summit, I attempted the ascent but ended up defeated- out of condition and climbing the steep stairs was too much murder on my calf muscles.

One of the people we sat with at lunch was also using the tour to celebrate his diamond birthday, it emerged we shared the same first name, date, city and hospital of birth!

Next day a bit more cruising around the bay and a visit to Sung Sot (Surprise) Cave before returning towards Hà Nội to catch the plane to Da Nang at Nội Bài. We were later indoemed the bay was again closed the day after we departed due to another tropical storm, which meant we had been very lucky.