Hello Hạ Long Bay

Our next port was Ha Long Bay, but first, a sea day. Amanda and I attended a watercolour class. I can confirm my art talents are not over-rated, they are in fact non existant.

These are meant to be tulips. I'm not exactly sure what they resemble.

and for the first time we finished dinner in time to attend a show! Was a great end to the evening with talented singers and dancers.

 

The pier where cruise ships dock is very long. So long that although we COULD walk it we chose to take the golf buggy option.

  

  

 

We had a tour booked on a "junk". Really a barge. And it's not exactly the pristine nature scenes you see in the documentaries. The floating villages have been closed down and/or moved to areas outside of the UNESCO site. While officially it's closed to fishing, in reality a blind eye is turned to small boats. Even though it was the off season there were boats everywhere trying for the best photo ops. And garbage. So much garbage. There are people employed to pick it. Plastic is banned (but the ban is enforced about as much as the no fishing). But still it is beautiful.