Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a bay with about 3,000 islands of various shapes and sizes, many featuring caves and thick jungle.  The islands tower above the ocean, making for a magnificent landscape, and an amazing journey on a boat navigating between many of these islands.

We spent three days cruising through the islands, and even had a chance to stop and visit a couple of them.  We biked around Cat Ba island, which is the largest island and is inhibited year round.  Half of this island is covered by its national park, which is home to the Cat Ba langur, a golden headed monkey. Also, we took a boat to a nearby floating fishing village – a community of 1,600 people live within four fishing communities.  They have built up small floating houses anchored at the bases of some of the tall, mountainous islands.  We made a visit to Surprise Cave, or Sung Sot Grotto, on Bo Hon island.  A mere 500 steps in total provides an amazing view into this two chamber cave.

Of course, given we were on a boat, there was plenty of time for reading on the deck, happy hour-ing and delicious eating!