My Travel Adventures

Our ship left Halong Bay in the morning, though not until we had made a small boat excursion to a nearby cove. Our local guide clearly hoped we would see monkeys there, to attract which he bought a handful of bananas. No one was more disappointed than him when the monkeys failed to turn up, and he munched on his bananas with an air of resigned gloom. The sun briefly came out as our ship headed back to the port, but the clouds set in once again by the time we got there, breaking into light rain as our bus returned to Hanoi.

We left Ninh Bình at quarter to eight and rode almost 200 kilometres to Hạ Long Bay. Known for its many limestone islets, the bay is a very popular destination: there are around five hundred boats providing transport and accommodation to tourists. The bay’s name means “Descending Dragon.” Legend has it that when fighting off foreign invaders, the local Vietnamese were aided by dragons who spat jade into the water to form a defensive wall. Seeing the beautiful landscape they created, the dragons decided to settle down, and they live in the bay to this day.