Day 80 - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Day 80 – Monday 31^st March 2014 – Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

At 07.00 we arrived at anchor in Ha Long Bay which is on the north east coast of Vietnam and the capital Hanoi is 105 miles to the west.  The country of Vietnam has a population of 84 million.

Ha Long City

This morning it is damp and humid with reduced visibility, and after having breakfast in the Britannia Restaurant, we took the ship’s lifeboat ashore at 10.30, and landed across the bay from the city of Ha Long.

Prior to getting into the lifeboat, luckily the local bank had set a money exchange on the ship, and one US dollar was worth twenty thousand Vietnamese dongs. 

Queen Elizabeth at anchor

We walked along the promenade and through the many market stalls and I was not enticed into buying, although I was a millionaire, with two millions dongs in my pocket.

We walked until we came to the edge of this part of town, double back on ourselves and found a wonderful beach restaurant.

They had internet access and sitting on the veranda was wonderful, drinking lots of ginger tea which was helpful for my now very sore throat.  This included a nice prawn lunch which complimented the tea.

Old and New Sampans

Could not resist going back into the market, and this is where the fun begins.  The best part being, the haggling over the price, which I find is always done in a very good nature.  They start off with their very best price, which you then half, and start the trading, the laughter begins going to and fro before you end up with an agreed price, usually just over what you quoted.  If not, you walk away and begin again somewhere else, all good fun.

 Needless to say, when I got back to the ship, I only had half a million dongs left.

Islands

By late afternoon, the visibility was improving but we could not see all of the surrounding islands, of which there are many.  It was within these islands, one of the James Bond’s movies was made, in which this place looked stunning, unfortunately, we did not see the beauty of the place.

The evening cocktail was one of my favourites, Mai Tai, a combination of light and dark rums, amaretto, apricot brandy, orange curacao, sour mix and pineapple juice.

I managed to go to dinner in the restaurant, but straight into bed afterwards, with all sorts of cold remedies.