Ha Long Bay, one of the most stunningly beautiful places I
have ever seen is located on the coast due east of Ha Noi. Breathtaking
is an understatement! Along with being
one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Ha Long Bay is also an
International Heritage Site. 600 square miles of thousands of limestone isles
and our home on the water for 3 days and 2 nights.
Our bus ride from the hotel in Ha Noi was about four hours. The sites along the way were exactly as we had
expected from our tour books and images from Hollywood. Our tour guide for this part of our journey,
Son, answered a slew of questions that the American students could think of. Son was an absolute sweetheart, and because of
him the bus ride was actually tolerable, if not quite enjoyable.
Rice Patties-
pictured from our bus ride. We learned that there are 2 seasons for rice in the
North & that workers make on average $200.00 a month.
From Ha Long Bay Harbor we were transported to the larger
boat that we would spend the night on. We enjoyed family style lunch, dinner,
and breakfast. We quickly discovered that the staples for each meal were;
cucumbers, tomatoes, and watermelon. A few of us fell in love with the ginger
tea they served…DELICIOUS!
The first night on the boat we had an awkward, but hilarious
time singing some Karaoke and an unsuccessful but nonetheless interesting try at squid
fishing.
This picture was
taken from my room on the boat! So beautiful!
Day two of our trip to Ha Long Bay we made a stop at Monkey
Island where we had one sighting of a monkey friend, he was hanging in the tree
snacking on some bread, super cute! After Monkey Island came Cat-Ba Island. We lodged in beautiful thatch huts on stilts, this place looked like something out
of a travel magazine! Later in the day some of us took a ride out to rock
climb, which turned out to be a pretty big challenge for all but one.
Monkey Island
Blake making rock
climbing look easy!
Swimming in Cat Bar
Island
Breathtaking view from
our cabin in Cat Bar Island
Day three we packed our bags and headed back to our big
boat. We gathered around for a cooking class led by one of the crewmembers, and
were taught how to make Vietnamese Spring rolls.
"See, the perfect Spring Roll" - Emma showing us how its done.
During our three days sailing, island hopping, and exploring
Ha Long Bay we did SO much that I actually had a hard time including all of our
activities in this blog post. Everything was so new and different that it was
important for me to make sure I took short breaks to take everything all in.
Magic was everywhere.
Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me!
Sending lots of Love from Ha
Long Bay!
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