Day 12: So This Is Paradise
This morning after breakfast we left Hanoi for Ha Long Bay, a 1500 square km inlet containing 1,956 limestone rock formations. We shared the ride out with a German couple, a British couple, well British man and his Kiwi ex-pat wife, and a couple of Australian ladies. All of us there thrilled to be amongst English speakers (even the German woman), so we blabbed about everything and nothing for nearly the entire 3-hour ride. We had one stop midway for nature calls. Of course, the stop was at a huge shop where they were selling all manner of things designed to separate tourists from their money. I may have purchased and extremely practical night outfit...made entirely of silk. ^^
Once we reached Ha Long city, a comment made to me earlier that it looked like Miami beach suddenly made complete sense. Garish, tacky buildings as far as the eye could see. Not that it mattered to us, since our destination was one of the beautiful, modern "junks" floating serenely in the bay. The boats belonging to the company we booked with, Indochina Junk, were absolutely beautiful, with teak wood forming the hull and innards of the vessel, and bamboo ceilings in the individual rooms to keep out the noise. Lovely.
Since the Australian ladies and Germans were only doing a single night trip (too bad for them), we said goodbye and met the group who would share our three-day, two-night excursion. Along with the British couple from our trip out, we shared the boat with a French-Canadian couple and another Australian couple, where the husband was a Canadian ex-pat and the wife was a Kiwi ex-pat. Heh.
After meeting our coordinator and getting settled, we had a delicious lunch as we headed out into the bay. The scenery was absolutely stunning. The water was a gorgeous blue-green, and the rocks rise up over the water like the scales of the dragon for which the bay is named. Don't worry, we took plenty of pictures. :3 After about two hours of sailing, we reached the spot for our first activity: kayaking! It was a wonderful way to get a close-up look at the rocks. If you'd like me to bore you with the geology, I'd be more than happy to upon request.
After kayaking, some of the group did a bit of swimming. We opted to stay up on deck and hang out watching the sun set while taking a gazillion pictures of the sky. Once the sun finally set, the stars, Venus, Mars, and several satellites came out to light up the sky beside a brilliant half moon. Afterwards was a 13-course dinner (I'm not even kidding) and terrific conversation before we called it a night.
I could so live like this.
Once we reached Ha Long city, a comment made to me earlier that it looked like Miami beach suddenly made complete sense. Garish, tacky buildings as far as the eye could see. Not that it mattered to us, since our destination was one of the beautiful, modern "junks" floating serenely in the bay. The boats belonging to the company we booked with, Indochina Junk, were absolutely beautiful, with teak wood forming the hull and innards of the vessel, and bamboo ceilings in the individual rooms to keep out the noise. Lovely.
Since the Australian ladies and Germans were only doing a single night trip (too bad for them), we said goodbye and met the group who would share our three-day, two-night excursion. Along with the British couple from our trip out, we shared the boat with a French-Canadian couple and another Australian couple, where the husband was a Canadian ex-pat and the wife was a Kiwi ex-pat. Heh.
After meeting our coordinator and getting settled, we had a delicious lunch as we headed out into the bay. The scenery was absolutely stunning. The water was a gorgeous blue-green, and the rocks rise up over the water like the scales of the dragon for which the bay is named. Don't worry, we took plenty of pictures. :3 After about two hours of sailing, we reached the spot for our first activity: kayaking! It was a wonderful way to get a close-up look at the rocks. If you'd like me to bore you with the geology, I'd be more than happy to upon request.
After kayaking, some of the group did a bit of swimming. We opted to stay up on deck and hang out watching the sun set while taking a gazillion pictures of the sky. Once the sun finally set, the stars, Venus, Mars, and several satellites came out to light up the sky beside a brilliant half moon. Afterwards was a 13-course dinner (I'm not even kidding) and terrific conversation before we called it a night.
I could so live like this.