We leave Cat Ba town at 8am by small junk which takes us to rejoin the larger junk for the journey back to Halong City and lunch. From there we transfer to a mini-bus for the long three-hour drive back to Hanoi. It’s a glorious day, the sun has made an appearance at last after two days of overcast if warm weather and the sea is like a bath. As we chug lazily back across the calm waters glistening in the sun we contemplate the bay filled with some 3000 islets rising perpendicular from the sea. These craggy limestone outcrops, many covered with lush green vegetation, have been weathered into weird and wonderful shapes with descriptive names like ‘fighting cocks’, ‘elephant’ and ‘roof’. All have been undercut by the power of the sea and sit as if hovering slightly above the surface of the water. The bay is made all the more fascinating and mysterious by the presence of numerous hidden inlets, tunnels, enclosed lagoons and caves. Now you may be able to envisage a fraction of the beauty and magnificence that is Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin! What a glorious spot to meander in a junk. Halong Bay ‘where the dragon descends to the sea’ was according to myth (and Lonely Planet) created by a great dragon who lived in the mountains. As it charged towards the coast, its tail failing, it gouged the valleys and crevices and when finally it plunged into the sea the bay filled with water leaving only the pinnacles visible. A World Heritage site and worthy rival to Guilin.
We arrive back in Hanoi around 4.30 pm and have some spare time to kill while we wait to get the overnight train to Sapa. Andy is still not well, so we find and internet cafe and make a call to American Express Travel Insurance helpline to see what they recommend. Andy suspect that his symptoms may be an adverse reaction to the doxycyline we are taking to prevent malaria and wants to get some alternative medication. Amex suggest we go the the Hanoi French Hospital to seek medical advice. Not a practical option given we have to be back at the travel cafe at 8pm for the train for Sapa so we decide to wait until our return to Hanoi on 9th.
We catch the 9.15pm sleeper train from Hanoi to Lia Chau. We share our sleeper compartment with John – an Australian newly arrived in Vietnam, who has left his wife in Hanoi with an injured ankle to spend a few days in Sapa – and a Pole who is so enormous in every direction that he fills the whole compartment! John, (like us) is a more mature traveller and likes to talk about world politics and the economic melt-down and we chat a while as we wait for the train to depart. Mindful of our early start tomorrow we turn in about 9.30pm in the hope of snatching some sleep.