Halong Bay Cruise

Today, we took a cruise on a junk through Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a bay with over 1900 limestone islets. Some of the small islands have lakes in them; some have caves. You can go on a day cruise, as we did, or go on cruises of two or more days. I think it is usually foggy here, as it was today, but I have seen some photos of it with the sun shining.

It was also very cold and I wished I had brought along my long johns. So I improvised: two pairs of pants, two long–sleeved shirts, two cotton cardigans––one heavy weight, warm jacket––not down, and a rain jacket. I was warm.

I have put a movie on the junk boats in the harbor. Go to Movies, Asia Movies, Vietnam Movies, “Halong Bay Cruise,” page 2, or directly to

http://www.peggysphotos.com/vietnam–movies/

Halong Bay Cruise

The boats traveled slowly and they seemed to follow the same dramatic route.

Halong Bay Cruise

All the boats showed off the Kissing Rocks to their passengers.

Floating Fishing Village

There were quite a number of floating fishing villages in the bay. We stopped at this one. I was all set to get off the boat and walk around the village until I panicked as I had visions of falling into one of its fishing holes, so I stayed on the boat and took photos of the village from the top deck of the boat.

Halong Bay Cruise

The luxury overnight boats in the bay were very impressive.

Halong Bay Cruise

The boat stopped at a pier to let most of group off to walk up 500 steps to a cave in the limestone islet. Again, I stayed on the boat as my adventurous spirit only goes so far––I hate steps and since I already climbed up the 275 steep steps up to the Batu Caves earlier on my trip, I felt that I didn’t have to repeat the adventure. Once you started up the steps, you could not turn back if you decided you had had enough as there would be too many people behind you to do this. From some in my tour group, I heard that one set of steps was hard going, but then it got easier. The cave was lit up. Photo: Part of the walk up to the cave.

I have put my photos of our Halong Bay cruise on a slide show. Go to Slide Shows, Asia, Vietnam–2, “Halong Bay, Tour Day 10” or directly to

http://www.peggysphotos.com/halong–bay–tour–day–10/

Halong Bay Cruise

My tour group inside the boat.

Halong Bay Cruise

We were to have lunch on the boat. Photo: Part of the boat’s kitchen.

Halong Bay Cruise

More of the kitchen.

Halong Bay Cruise

Our lunch. I think this was pumpkin soup again, which seems to be a staple in Vietnam. I kept trying the pumpkin soups served and I could not obtain a taste for it. But I was happy to have spring rolls again––they are made very tasty in Vietnam.

Halong Bay Cruise

More of our lunch, much that I found very good.

Halong Bay Cruise

Coca Cola came in a very decorative can.

Halong Bay Cruise

After our lunch, Tho superbly entertained us. First, he demonstration how to make a swan out of an apple.

Toothpick Trick–Movie

Next, Tho showed us how to have toothpicks hold onto a fork (the toothpick–fork trick?).

Back at Our Hotel

When we landed at the Hanoi airport, Tho asked if anyone needed to use the ATM. Since I had taken out 8 million dong in Ho Chi Minh City, I thought I was still “rich,” but I discovered later that I was almost dong–less and needed more cash. So I went down the hill to the ATM and took some money out. I was walking against the motorscooters going to the ATM, but was hesitant about walking back with the motorscooters behind me after taking out cash. So I walked up the hill to another hotel and asked the doorman if he would call a cab for me. The least amount of dong that I had was 100,000––$4.80 U.S., so I gave that to the doorman for a tip (I forgot how much 100,000 dong was worth––it can be very confusing with such large numbers). He asked me if I wanted to pay the taxi with that money, so I said yes. The taxi came about a minute later, the doorman paid the taxi, the taxi driver gave him change, and I told the doorman to keep the change. He couldn’t believe someone would give him a tip of any amount, so he gave part of his tip to the taxi driver. Everyone was happy, including me to get a safe ride back to the hotel.

We had wi–fi in most of our hotel rooms, and if not, we had it in a hotel’s lobby, so I was having fun taking photos with my i–Phone 4 and sending them to Facebook over wi–fi. But I had been trying for two days to get on Facebook in Halong Bay. When I asked Tho about it, he said that Facebook is blocked in this area as there are many industrial plants nearby. The workers in these plants had been spending too much time during their work day logging onto Facebook, so the government blocked the site. I was able to get on Facebook in all other places in Vietnam, but from a fellow tourmate, who, using an i–Pod,  wasn’t able to in places that I was able to, so I am giving a very good recommendation to taking an i–Phone 4 or above when you travel (that is if you want to send photos out when you travel and you don’t want to take along a computer).

Photo: The grounds of our hotel were very attractive.