Halong Bay - floating village

Today we travelled by minibus to Halong Bay where we boarded the Bhaya IV for our 3day/2night "cruise". Halong Bay is a World Heritage site and number 1 in our guidebook of things that you must see in Vietnam. I was expecting tourist hell and, in fairness, there are a lot of "cruise" boats doing the tour. However, once out of the port and sailing through the karsts, (even with some of the ugly tankers) it was quite spectacular. The first thing we were taken to see was a floating village which really was quite an eye opener - not something I've ever seen before. This is typical of one of houses we passed. I love the care taken with the bright colours, even within quite a difficult environment.