Ha Long Bay

Today we got back from Ha Long Bay, and it was amazing! We spent three days there, and not all went according to plan. The first was pretty crazy and we got to experience the monsoon for the first time. We were on the boat for most of the day and at the end of the day were dropped off at the Cat Ba island harbour where we waited for a bus to take us to a nearby hotel. We waited two hours because the road was flooded. Finally we got taken to the hotel by “the most powerful bus in Vietnam”. It really was. We drove through a part of the road that made the Bow River seem like creek. We were very wet, but it was an interesting experience.

Our second and third days at Ha Long Bay were amazing. The weather was perfect and for the first time we saw blue skies, a sunset and a sunrise. We got some great photos! But the photos will not do it justice. At night we sat at the top of the ship where we watched the sunset, followed by a full bright moon reflected in the ocean with the stars out. We spent a night on the boat. We also did some kayaking and swimming. It was a lot of fun. Kheang described Ha Long Bay as the most beautiful place on Earth.

We’ve been meeting a lot of tourists along the way. Tonight we spent with Max and Grady, an Australian couple. They invited us out to celebrate Max’s birthday. We didn’t stay too long as we’ll try and get up early tomorrow to explore and figure out where we’re going next. We might head back south to check out some of the places we might have overlooked.