Bay of the Descending Dragon

After a 2-hour-bus drive we arrived at Halong City, where we would take a cruise out to Halong Bay and spend a night on one of the islands. We drove through nice scenery of rice fields, water buffalos and village life.

On the way we stopped to see some handicrafts such as embroidery being made.

Halong Bay consists of almost 2,000 small limestone islets that rise from the ocean. 

We did the cruise on a Chinese style junk boat.

Many of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. We stopped at one island to see the caves.

Back on the boat it started pouring with rain. We had to throw out the anchor because at times we couldn't even see the massive limestone karsts around us from the fog. But the bay was absolutely magical in the storm with all the lightning.