Our day trip east of Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay started with a squeeze in bed.
But not that kind of squeeze.
We arrived at the office of Daiichi Travel at 6am to find a sleeper bus filled with bunk beds, which would have been great if we were small enough to fit them. It felt more akin to Gulliver’s Travels as we each folded ourselves into bunks, knees bent up, and the bus threaded through dark, damp streets and jolted through the gears onto the motorway.In no time our fellow, smaller travellers were asleep, as opposed to us pair of King Kongs held captive in our cradles.
After switches to a speed boat, a normal coach and taxi, a little ferry transferred us, at sea, to a ramshackle larger boat with a mix of Asian and European tourists.
From there we thumped into the bay, with its array of vertical limestone pinnacles jutting from the emerald ocean like a lost world.
We chose Lan Ha Bay as it is said to be a bit less busy than the well known neighbouring Ha Long Bay.
Ha Long translates as ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’ and legend has it that this mystical scene was created when a great mountain dragon charged towards the coast, its flailing tail gouging out valleys and crevasses.
As the dragon plunged into the sea the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles present.
We cruised through the mystical landscape before stopping off at a little beach at the foot of a precipice.
There was then time to jump over the side of the boat, plunge into the cool-feeling water and investigate the coral strewn shore, complete with smooth caves sculpted into the rock.
From there our boat pottered on to its next port of call, where our intrepid band of sightseers donned blue life jackets and boarded two-seater kayaks to explore a secluded, rock bounded bay.
When we did this previously it was a disaster and we rotated the tiny craft like a helicopter spinning out of control; thank goodness we had recently watched the Boat Race and achieved some synchronicity this time.It was then time for lunch, and a good feast it was too.
Back on the boat our hosts served us dishes of rice and noodles, prawns, fish, chicken, tofu, potatoes, spring rolls, peanuts and pineapple and it was delicious.
We then pootled back past a never-ending array of photo opportunities, marvelling at some mighty birds drifting over the pinnacles and looking for, but never managing to see, monkeys looking at us from cliffs.
Finally we returned back to a little dock, and we journeyed back to bustling Hanoi where the dark streets were decorated with multi-coloured LCD Christmas trees and skyscrapers and shops were emblazoned with shop and bank names belonging to a different world than we know.
After a shower, a few Bia Viet beers at 48p a bottle and most welcome chicken and beef banh mi rolls we turned in and reflected on a really nice day.
