Halong Bay - Day 2

After a good night's sleep, we had a lovely breakfast and then boarded another boat that was going to take us to the bays north of Halong for the day. One of the ladies from our boat, Moon, accompanied us as a tour guide for the day. Most people on our junk were only doing a one night trip, so we left them behind and were taken on a different, smaller boat to one of the other bays within the greater Halong Bay region - Lan Ha Bay. After cruising through the islands, our first stop was at an oyster museum/pearl farm. Here were learnt how fresh water pearls are grown.

Relaxing on our way to the pearl farm

Workers cleaning the oysters, and making sure that they stay healthy

Workers inserting pearls into the oysters, a delicate process

Pearl inserted - snug as a bug

The "shell" pearl and a finished pearl

Our Day Two Junk

Next, we carried on cruising to the spot that we were going to kayak from. We spent the rest of the morning exploring a few caves and coves. We were lucky to be taken to a spot where there were very few boats. The company that we went with are one of a few who are cleared to take clients to that particular area for kayaking. One of the isolated pools/lagoons which we ventured into was a nursery for jellyfish. So you can see loads of juveniles bobbing around. There were a variety of colours, including blue, red, white and brown. Our guide showed us that you can actually touch them on the top of their 'heads', and they are too small to sting you. There were also smaller ones which you can actually pick up. in your hand. We did, and they feelt (and looks a little) like an eye.

We were free to explore the area on our kayaks and, because of the exclusivity of this particular area, most of the time our group were the only people who we shared the water with. It was an awesome experience! What made it even better was that Lan Ha Bay is a little bit removed from the more commercial Halong Bay, and so there was far less pollution in the water.

When we got back to the boat, Moon told us that we could swim if we wanted to. Better yet, we could jump off the boat. We were a little disappointed the day before when we found out that we could not swim (and jump off the boat) in Halong Bay because of new safety policies, so we literally jumped at the opportunity when it was presented to us. (Lan Ha Bay is a separate entity to Halong Bay, so it has its own rules - no complaints from us!)

We spent about half an hour swimming and jumping before we were told that we had to move on. So we climbed back into the boat and dried off. We were then invited to enjoy a delicious lunch - again, a wonderful spread of healthy, fresh ingredients. The boat moved while we ate, and we were able to appreciate the surroundings as we chatted and enjoyed our lunch.

After lunch, the boat stopped again for us to swim. This time there were a few more other boats around. We enjoyed the time to relax in the water and jump off the top storey of the boat for a while. Then it started to rain. Now most people would think that this would be a bad thing. However, we enjoyed the drop in temperature and the feel of the fresh water showering on our salty skin. It was a fairly short down-pour, but it marked the end of our swimming session. We all dried off and the captain started the trip back to Halong Bay, to our original boat.

When we got back to the main boat, we had some free time. We took this opportunity to relax and look at some photos. We also made use of the boat's (intermittent) wifi to try and book a hotel for when we returned to Hanoi. At sunset we joined the rest of the guests on the deck for 'happy hour', and enjoyed some drinks and some spring rolls. We sat and chatted with the other guests for a while, as the night grew darker and the bay began to display speckles of lights all around where the other junks were moored for the night.

The second day was far more active than the first day, so we were quite tired and ended up going to bed rather early. An end to another wonderful day in paradise!