Ha Long Bay was
amazing! It was so neat to see and boat through all
the islands in Ha Long Bay. We arrived to Ha Long
City at about 11am and immediately got onto our
boat. The only thing that sucks about Ha Long Bay
is that it is really touristy and there were about
50 boats in the bay. Each boat has about 16 people
on it. Once we got out of the traffic jam of
boats, they served us a Vietnamese Lunch. On out
boat we had 13 people and 8 of them were from french
speaking countries. This was the first time in
Vietnam that I had encountered french speaking
people. I thought I would meet a lot more but i
guess they all go to Hanoi. There were couples from
Paris, Switzerland and Montreal. There were also a
few other french people on the boat that were
getting off at one of the islands. After Lunch we
went up to the deck to look at the bay and relax.
After about an hour we st oped off at an island that
had really cool caves. Our tour guide kept
pointing out rock formations that could be dragons,
kittens, turtles, a man and a woman and many other
things. When ever he pointed it out we were like
yeah, sure, maybe. It was pretty funny because he
was totally serious.
After the
caves we went cruising again until we stopped to
go kayaking! It was really fun to get really close
to the rocks. We even went in a tunnel. We tried
to find a rock to jump off of but the water was too
shallow every where we found a good rock. After
about an hour we had to get back on our boat. So
much for a day full of kayaking, such false
advertising, but I was expecting that.
Things always seem to be good to be true here.
After we got back on the boat we drifted off and
stopped to go swimming. Not finding a rock to jump
off of we decided to jump off our boat. It was
really high when I got up there, but I did it anyway
many times. Because the water was not too salty, it
did not hurt when I splashed into the water. It was
a lot different feeling from when I jumped off the
boat in Nha Trang, where the water was super salty.
After swimming we
went back to our bunks, took showers and then went
up to the top deck for a drink and to watch the
sunset. We then ate dinner and played some cards. At
dinner, an American sat at our table who had the new
Harry Potter book. Tori was so excited because she
loves HP. She could not stop talking about it. In
Vietnam, they do not sell many things that are
American or Western so we where surprised that he
had it. We learned from him that he bought it in
Bangkok and they are showing the movie... We knew
exactly what we were doing when we got back to
bangkok! So the next morning was Tori's Bday and the
American gave her the book. She could not stop
smiling for hours. I am writing this blog about 2
days later and I think she has 100 pages left!
In the morning we
just cruised around the bay, took pictures and read.
We arrived back at the dock at about noon time. They
took us to a place for lunch and then we took the 3
hour bus ride back to Hanoi. The countryside in
Vietnam is very pretty and green with all the rice
fields. I think that it would be really cool to do a
bike tour of the Vietnam countryside. I actually saw
a few people doing it! I would do it but not at this
time of year when it is like 95-100 degrees out!
We got back to the
same hotel, checked in and after being in the room
for about an hour the air-con starting dripping. We
were like no way and we moved hotels. We found this
hotel down the street where the room was about 3
times bigger and 3 dollars cheaper. I was really
happy that we moved. For Tori's birthday we went out
to dinner at Al Fresco's in the French Quarter. It
was a lot of fun to go to dress up a bit and go to a
nice restaurant. Afterwards we were really tired and
the Sofitel was next door, so we decided to hang out
in the Lobby for a little bit. It was a gorgeous
hotel and we didnt want to leave. We took a cyclo
home and went to bed.
