Day 21 – Thursday 14th January – Halong Bay to Hanoi

We awoke early having had a good nights rest, with the gentle swaying of the boat. When we went upstairs we could see that it had been raining overnight. The weather hasn’t been as good as it might have been for our trip to Halong Bay, and its actually been quite cold, but even so, the views have been breathtaking.

After breakfast, which included the usual omelette, but also a beef soup (!), we cruised slowly around the bay taking in more of the sights. The scenery was breathtaking!

We could see little house boats, with their fishing equipment bobbing up and down. We cruised on before arriving back at the port for 10 am where our bus was waiting to take us back to Hanoi.

Halong Bay has been a real highlight of the trip so far!

We stopped on the way back at a craft centre, staffed by people with disabilities, where they were making amazing tapestries and other things like vases.  There were lots of things to buy, although nothing that we could really see at home. So, all we ended up buying were some sweets for work!

We arrived back in Hanoi at just after 3 pm and were greeted by a welcome drink of a glass of wine at the hotel. When our rooms were ready we headed up and spent the afternoon relaxing before the farewell meal.

We got a taxi to the old quarter and shared a Vietnamese meal at Yin and Yang!  While we were eating the heavens opened and we were glad that we weren’t out in it. It was a lovely end to the group trip (unfortunately minus Ed who didn’t make the meal). Once we paid and presented Phuong with his gift, we headed to a local bar for a drink before taking a taxi home.

We said our farewells in the lobby, in case we didn’t see others in the morning, and then headed to bed.