Sitting on the dock of Ha Long bay...

We were lucky enough to spend the last few days of 2015 (and of our travels, too!) on another majestic world heritage - Ha Long bay.




About 3.5hrs away from the capital, Hanoi, Ha Long bay is made up of over 3000 limestone islands breaking up the Golf of Tonkin.

The legend behing the name, that means 'descending dragon' is that the Vietnamese people had to defend themselves from enemies coming from the north... They asked the Gods to help them and the Mother Dragon and her children descended to help the Vietnamese. They spit ambers with their breath, killing the enemies and those ambers have turned into the islands and islets that dot Ha Long bay.

We also visited a Heaven cave, so called because it has openings in the ceiling... Where you can get to heaven!



We slept one night on the boat, unfortunately it was rather cold and foggy... But very impressive anyway.
The second night we spent it in the biggest island on the bay, called Cat Ba which means "women island" as once only women and children used to live there as the men were off to work or to war.

We are back in crazy Hanoi - with its sidestreet cafes and 5millions motorbikes before the very last few days, but here's a few snaps.

Been there, Don Det

It has been a couple of busy days on the Mekong islands in Laos.

This archipelago is known as the 4000 islands and it is so green and lush, surrounded by one of the biggest river in the world.

We stayed mainly in Don Det, the first day we rented bikes (less than £1 for the whole day) and biked through the island. It is bigger than I thought it would be, but roads were flat thank Goodness! 

We biked to Don Khon, an island that is connected with a bridge, where you can see another waterfalls (it was really nice but I am planning to avoid waterfalls for a while after this one... Laos just seems to be one long waterfall!), a small beach and a rescued gibbon called Miss Hoi.

The colours of these paddy fields!

The small roads we biked on the island

We made it back to the village - well, the bar, just in time for sunset. Tired and very hot but give me this and a couple of Beer Lao any day! 

The second day we decided to step it up a notch and booked a kayaking tour. Neither of us had ever been kayaking before and we went as a large group. The local guides were good, but my steering skills were very poor and the river was going fast. We hit some grade 2 rapids (not sure if that is high or not) but the thing that really got us were the bushes and branches on the river. We got a big smug in the first half as everyone else capsized but we did not, just to capsized as soon as we set off again. Lost one paddle, but both ourselves and the paddle got rescued and could carry on. We got stuck on some rocks again on the way down, got a few scrapes and were generally tired and sore... I did enjoy it though and kept asking Ben if we can go kayaking in the UK :-) the trip also involved walking to yet another waterfall (also known as walking over tiny bridges and through some Mekong mud) and a boat ride to see the endangered Mekong dolphins. Not overly impressed by the waterfalls but we saw a couple of dolphins and it was nice to know the locals are doing their best to look after these fresh water dolphins seeing there's only less than 100 of them apparently!

After that trip, we went for one last Lao Laap (minced meat with garlic, shallots, coriander and lots of fresh Asian spices) and one last local brew. That was our last stop in Laos, a bit sad to be leaving the land of baguettes (they used to be a French colony) but excited to move on. We crossed the land border to Cambodia (which involved sitting 4hr in a cramped mini van with someone who forgot his deodorant!) and arrived to Siem Reap, the home of the mighty Angkor Wat.

Rain on the island of fire

We have now left Siquijor, another island is the Central Visayas. The Spanish colonizers called it the “Isla de Fuego” (“Island of Fire”) due to the glow of the multitude of fireflies that would gather nightly... I find this hilarious as we have had quite a bit of rain since we have been here and only one firefly!

Not sure if the rain and wind (so loud that keeps you up at night!) were due to the typhoon Koppu that was hitting the north island of Luzon a few days ago, or just our own luck.

Regardless of the weather, we decided to go on an island tour... Siquijor is supposed to be home to black and white sorcery, as well as enchanted tree and potions.

Our first stop was a 400year old tree called Century Old Balete tree. The tree is quite impressive and am glad we stopped by - minus the rain. 

We then stopped at a church, a convent that doubles as a school with some impressive Catholic art (aka a Sacred Heart of Jesus rug just out of Father Ted) and went through a forest.

All of this in a tricycle: a small scooter that has a iron seat mounted on and takes you around. This did not help our getting wet but we had a pretty good view of the road/island the whole time and we could wave at all the locals while we were passing by. Filipinos have proven to be extremely friendly and the kids always shout "hello" to us!

We also stopped at Cambugahay Falls. You can swim, jump the ropes and the water was the right temperature. But the stairs were so slippery I am surprised I made it there and back.

The last stop was a mangrove forest. They had set up bridges all the way to the sea and you can have a better look at the tress as you are pretty much walking on water. I really liked it!

Island hopping and dolphins ahoy!

Amazing day in Panglao island, Philippines.

Early start at 6am to get out on the water on time to see the dolphins: I have seen dolphins before, but this was incredible! There were big families swimming all around, big spinner dolphins jumping out of the water and swimming very fast! (they like it around here as there's a lot of tuna in the water - clever!)

The second stop was Balicasan Island... An amazing spot of beach where we could relax, have a mango juice (or a coffee since it was only 9am!) and a bit of snorkelling.

The local guide took us to "turtle point" and before you know it we spotted 6/7 turtles - or it might have been the same one getting around ahah. There was just 4 of us swimming in the water, the visibility was so clear and it was so amazing to see the turtles coming up to get some air, diving back down again and having their own cleaner fish. Wish I had an underwater camera cause the view was unforgettable!

Happy on the boat!

Balicasag Island

The beach on Balicasag

The last and third stop was at Virgin island, now known as "la isola di Francesco" in honour of St Padre Pio di Pietralcina. The Philippines is mainly a Catholic country so the whole island was dotted with statues and signs of devotion. The most spectacular sight however was the beach... I don't think I have even seen a place with water this beautiful!

Virgin Island

The other beach on Virgin Island

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