Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay, which means "descending dragon," has an interesting legend behind it. (Click Here to go to the Wekipedia article about Ha Long Bay.) I'll just tell you that the pictures don't do justice to how beautiful the place is. It takes about 3.5 hours to drive there from Hanoi. And it was cold when we arrived, plus a little foggy. It had been raining in Hanoi, so I thought we might get more bad weather for our stay. Other than it being cold, it was great, and the second day there it warmed up a good bit.

We stayed overnight on a large Vietnamese Junk with cabins. The first day, we went out to a very scenic area where there was access to kayaking, a beach, and other assorted things. Primarily, though, it was an opportunity to see incredible views! Everybody else went kayaking while I stayed on the boat. (I was cold, and didn't think that getting in the water was going to help that at all. To conserve energy, the Junk captain did not turn on the heating for the cabins until after 5:30pm, so I was just trying to get warm as best I could.) When everyone got back, we went to a nearby island to scale a mountain and take some great pics before we lost all the light.

An interesting observation of the entrepreneur spirit of the Vietnamese. The bay we anchored in isn't anywhere close to land that I could tell. It was a popular site, however, and our boat was just one of maybe two dozen in the bay. There were probably 6-8 small rowboats that Vietnamese women had stocked with all sorts of items: chips, cookies, beer, soda, pearl necklaces, and shells, just to name a few. These women would go from boat to boat, trying to sell to the tourists on these boats. The rowboats didn't have motors, so they used oars to row around, and would try to outmaneuver the other rowboats to get to the new boats first. It was just interesting to me how hard they worked, and that they had found a need and were supplying something that a command economy probably wouldn't have supplied. In this country, it looks like everyone is doing something, opening some storefront, selling something... whatever they can to make more money...

After dinner, we began singing karaoke. This was my first time to sing karaoke, and it may be my last. I learned that, if you stay up late singing karaoke for 3+ hours, you might wake up the next morning with a massive headache, queasy stomach, a little dizzy, very low energy...

Thursday morning, we went to see the "Amazing Cave," which isn't the same one that was in National Geographic recently, but a small (but nevertheless still spectacular) cave on one of the islands. Then we headed back to shore for our drive back! Oh, I almost forgot. We stopped at a little restaurant outside of Ha Long Bay to eat lunch. They have a hotel attached to the property, overlooking a fantastic view. A deluxe suite that accommodates up to 4 people: $75 per night. Getting here is expensive, but a dollar goes a long way once you are on the ground!

I thought that this excursion was great, and the pictures are incredible. Like with Iceland, however, I feel like it was hard to capture the essence of the view with a camera....