Halong Bay

We just got back from Halong Bay. From a distance the landscape was amazing. But when you got down and kayaked, you could see that there wasn't much marine life and there was a huge amount of pollution. When we went into one lagoon our guide started describing how monkey brains were eaten. This was to explain why we couldn't see any monkeys on the island. Our one stop was at a floating fishing village which struck me as crowded with tourists. It seemed like a bit of a cramped life because you have an entire extended family living in a 10 by 10 hut floating on a bunch of styrofoam blocks lashed together. All the houses had dogs to protect the house and to pull the children out if they fill into the water. Around each house was a small fish farm. We also saw clam farms, which are plastic tubs of sand sunk into the shallows around the islands.