Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

I arrived at Ha Long Bay expecting a postcard and found something stranger and more beautiful. The bay contains nearly 2,000 limestone islands eroded into shapes that defy description — not mountains, not quite islands, something between the two, covered in jungle and rising vertically from water so still it mirrors everything perfectly. We chartered a small junk for three nights and moved at the pace of the tides. The crew cooked our meals on deck — fresh squid pulled from the water that morning, morning glory with garlic, congee with crab. On the second night I sat on the bow at 2am and there was no sound except the boat moving and the occasional call of something in the jungle on the nearest island. The caves — Hang Sung Sot is the largest — are lit in colour that should feel kitsch and instead feels genuinely overwhelming. The limestone formations inside are so alien and so beautiful simultaneously that my notebook from that morning contains nothing but the word impossible written over and over. Go in March or April before the summer humidity arrives.