Hallo Halong Bay- no wait.... Goodbye!

Finally! The day was here! It was time to see the place I've been most excited about. When I first considered visiting Vietnam, I did a Google image search and was bombarded with images of Halong Bay. The bay contains almost two thousand tiny rocky mountain formations rising out of the sea. I was so intrigued by the sheer number of these formations and then even more enticed by the lush greenery and deep caves contained within them. I had to see this magical place!   

As the four hour bus ride progressed I noticed the sky becoming darker and darker and the clouds becoming thicker and greyer.... As a good Irish weather women I recognised the ominous signs of rain.... Nothing could dampen my spirits however because, yes it was a bit grey, yes it was a bit misty but I could see the islands rising majestically out of the water! 

More excitingly even than seeing these islands, was soaking up the atmosphere around the islands. Weaving through the bay were traditional Vietnames boats, converted to accommodate tourists like me, on for an overnight cruise around the bay with the addition of activities such as kayaking, fishing and cooking demonstrations! As I looked out across the mists, nothing could dampen my spirits! Yes the bay was full of tourists but also dotted around were tiny traditional rowing boats with people fishing. Rickety little wooden row boats became make shift shops as strong women towed alongside your boats "you buy! YOU BUY!" came the call! 

Suddenly our tour guide arrived looking anxious... Bad weather....bad news.... No stay in Halong bay....  Unfortunately, monsoon season had finally decided to make its presence felt. We couldn't stay on the boat that night. We couldn't do any water activities. 

Luckily out fantastic hotel, Serendipity in Hanoi, with whom we booked the tour rearranged everyrhing for us, putting us up in a five star hotel and then also giving us a small refund as compensation. While other travellers were frantically calling tour operators and googling hotels I had time to visit some of the famous caves located in the bay. The atmosphere down there was magical. The place was dark but lit cleverly to show off the interesting rock formations and mighty stalgmites and stalactites. It really made me appreciate the power of nature and time. This cave was created by the elements  day by day  

over thousands of years.

Having built up an appetite in the caves I was ready for the massive Vietnamese feast on board our boat. For once I was distracted from eating by the presence of not one, not two, but 4 Irish people! I've travelled half way across the world, crossed continents to have the chats with a few paddies! And chat we did! It's great meeting other travellers as you can swap stories and tips, where to go, where to avoid and so on. Tips swapped it was time for 'the craic' you can take the Irish out of ireland but we'll never lose the craic! A few of us decided to make the most of our five star hotel swimming pool followed by drinks in the swanky rooftop bar. Suddenly a pack of cards came out and our noise level finally became loud enough to join out the karaoke "singing" that is so popular here in vietnam. Unfortunately we weren't quite loud enough to over power the screeching but thankfully the torrential rain and bellowing thunder showed its might by killing all of the electricity in the city. 

Our sign had come, time for bed. Happy, but slightly terrified of the storm, we crawled into our individual giant double bed in our enormous air conditioned room ready to continue the big Asian Adventure another (drier) day!