SE Asia Day 3

January 26th 2009

Yes that's right, not 25th, we have lost a whole day getting over here and boy are we feeling it this morning. Hopefully we'll make it through the day! This morning we woke up early and enjoyed a very tasty breakfast at the hotel before being picked up by our guide, Ha, for our tour of Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island. The journey began on a bus with 15 other tourists and a 3 hour ride to Halong City. Our driver, Wong, was insane. I would have passed out for exhaustion but I was so scared we were going to run into something or someone on the drive that I couldn't. i swear Wong only drives in the middle of the road.... half way through the drive he pulled into a giant tourist gift shop on the side of the road and we were all forced to get off and look around. everything is completely overpriced but everyone from the other 15 buses that have parked there seem to be buying things left and right. i think we'll pass for now. then back on the bus to halong bay city. this city was created just as a tourist spot to stop before getting on a boat to the bay. it doesn't have much culture but has an atm and cheap water...just what we needed. after more chaos, we all get on our junk boat. it is called the phoenix halong cruiser and is pretty nice. jen and kevin are sharing a cabin and i am taking the other one. i should mention at this point that it is freezing! We're talking 50 degrees and raining. i didn't expect this and brought no coat, one pair of pants and 2 sweatshirts. guess those will have to last a few days..going out on the open sea in this weather will be interesting. oh well, you're only in vietnam once and the bay really is gorgeous. halong bay is an area east of ha noi on the gulf of tonkin. it's basically a channel of water that runs through jagged limestone islands. the area has numerous floating fishing villages and is usually full of tourists on junk boats made for cruising the gulf. however due to the weather and the Tet holiday, the channel is not very crowded so that worked out for us. So back to the story, we shuffled on to the boat and we're off on the cruise. We had a tasty, yet random, lunch on the boat. The dining room of the boat is also the main viewing area inside the boat. It is all cherry wood and mimics a white tablecloth dining room, to the best ability possible in vietnam. the rooms are also all cherry and each has it's own en suite bathroom. all and all it's pretty luxurious for vietnam. after lunch we make our way to the hag sung sot caves...probably the most famous in ha long bay. the caves are located within one of the islands and were created naturally due to erosion with water and minerals. the caves are huge caverns with stalactites and stalagmites all over the place. the cave is huge and the formations are beautiful but it is filled with tourists. i think the best part of the caves is the views it gives u of the bay from the entrance and exit on the side of a hill. after finishing at the caves we headed back to the boat for a nap....jet lag sucks....then woke up for dinner and a night cruise thru the bay. After dinner, at 8pm, all we wanted to do was sleep but we forced ourselves to stay up for one more beer and then passed out around 8:30. something about being that jet lagged and a beer makes everything anyone says funny, so we had a great time.....that's what she said.