.: MENU goes East - From Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

When you go to Vietnam, people tell you of all sorts of places you must see. We will come back one day to see the rest of the country. The one place we think you should never miss is Ha Long Bay. We were given the advice not to go with the small and cheaper operators but to go with the big, fairly expensive companies. It was the best possible advice. This trip was a dream come true. We absolutely loved every moment of it and thoroughly recommend that you add it to your bucket list

It is a three and a half hour trip to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi. It is not that far, the roads are very busy and congested and one drives slowly through many towns, rather like our N2 highway through Somerset West. So it was an early start as our luxury bus came to collect us at 8am. We took overnight bags and left our suitcases at the hotel, to which we would return after three days away

The outskirts of Hanoi

This is the typical Vietnamese house, it may have many storeys, but all the houses seem to be the same width

Only the older houses are bigger. And people have built small businesses in their gardens

Halfway there, we stopped at a tourist centre which employs disabled craftsmen who make local art and crafts. Many of the disabled people are victims of the Vietnam war

Alabaster statues and carvings

made on the site, using ordinary power tools

some showing immense skill and artistry

Embroidery

Painting

A laughing Buddha for your garden temple

Clothing and jewellery

Our luxury bus was very comfortable

We stopped again later for a drink of fresh coconut juice. It was amazing how much liquid is in each coconut. They are very refreshing

We arrived at the harbour and met our urbane and well spoken tour guide Smiley Huang

Several different tours were leaving and there were tenders to take everyone and their luggage to the boats

Some were on one night stays, our voyage was two nights, three days

We passed some of the other boats

And there is ours, the magnificent Dragon Legend 1 which is run by Indo Junk Tours

Boarding the tender and putting on life jackets

Passing a smaller boat. We even saw a boat which they called the honeymoon boat - just one couple

Labels, in case we boarded the wrong boat! Immediately after boarding, we had a meeting with the crew and were given safety instructions

Wow, we were not expecting this. Our luxury cabin

Finest percale linen

and a large bathroom on suite

And we begin our slow cruise through the wonderful pinnacle islands of tropical plant clad limestone

You can see how the water level has dropped over the centuries

Up on deck for lunch. We knew then we were in for an incredible three days. First course: Spicy and sour fresh shrimp & tomato soup

Garden Salad with lime dressing

Prawns, so sweet in a Lemongrass and ginger sauce

Deep fried Ha Long crab meat 'kebabs' skewered on sugar cane sticks

Stewed chicken with black beans and (no) mushrooms

Steamed green seasonal vegetables - mostly morning glory we were told. This was served with steamed sea bass in soya sauce and steamed rice. Dessert was a platter of fresh fruit