Ha Long Bay

We took an early bus on Wednesday morning from Hanoi to Tuan Chau in the Ha Long Bay area. It was quite a drive and we arrived around lunchtime. Our plan was to check in and dump our bags before heading out to the marina for lunch. However, we were delayed slightly whilst Will chased a cockroach around our room, he eventually trapped it under a glass and let it out the window. Confident our room was now bug free, we continued with our original plans. The view from the marina out to the islands was stunning and exactly why we had wanted to visit this part of the coast. After grabbing lunch we returned to our accommodation to relax for the next few hours through the peak sun part of the day. This tactic has been working well as a way of avoiding overheating. Later in the afternoon, we headed to Ha Long on the mainland and explored the Hung Thang district. We found that the whole block of buildings closest to the water was made up of attractive, but clearly empty apartments. It gave off a very eerie, abandoned feel and we decided to walk further inland in search of restaurants for dinner. We were relieved, when we found a main road running parallel to the coastline that was full of local shops and restaurants. Every restaurant had huge tank systems full of shrimp, crabs and lobsters, all destined to be someone's dinner.

The next morning we walked to the nearby beach. We're not usually beach people, but as there wasn't much else to do nearby we decided to give it a chance. On the walk there, we passed more abandoned apartments nestled in amongst hotels that had guests, chilling by the pools out front. A weird mix we thought, but perhaps during peak season this area would be bumping, with more tourists wandering round. We found a beachfront bar with parasols and deck chairs on the sand and enjoyed drinks, whilst looking out to sea. The mountain views were still amazing in the distance. We people watched and messed around in the sand for a couple of hours. Will intermittently stalked crabs, trying to reach them before they hid back under the sand. By the time we'd had lunch on the beach it was peak sun, so we decided to leave and make our way back to our room. In the evening we went back to the same spot, where we had dinner the night before and enjoyed another traditional Vietnamese dish.