The second stop on the Vietnam trip was more of a day trip to Ha Long Bay. It is said to be one of the newer Natural Wonders of the World. We booked a trip through our hotel for about $23. It included transportation to and from, boat ride, lunch, and caves.
It took 3 1/2 hours on the bus each way. It was the longest bus ride that I had been on in quite a while. We only got to stop for once. The place that we did stop at had restrooms but nothing to eat. There was plenty of souvenirs to buy. Most people bought candy just to have something to eat!
Once we got to the Bay and boarded our ship, it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the ships all headed out at the same time. So you look around and you are surrounded by other boats. Then everyone sort of disburses all over the Bay. The weather was perfect. It was a bright sunny day. Perfect jeans and a t-shirt temperature.
The Bay was gorgeous. All the wonderful rock formations in the middle of the Bay were really neat to see. Our boat tour stopped at a fisherman's dock. We got off the boat and looked into his nets that had what he had caught that day. I am not sure that we ever met the fisherman as he was busy drinking and playing cards at that point in the day! After the visit to the docks, we had lunch. It was quite the lunch of all sorts of seafood and veggies.
The rest of the day was spent sailing around the bay and soaking up the sun. We paid $5 more to get to go on a smaller boat that took us into some "caves". They were not caves at all more like lagoons. The openings into the "caves" we pretty cave-like, and we did need to be in the small boat in order to get through. The boat also docked and we got off to see an actual cave. This is a newly found cave that just started to become a tourist site in 1999. It was pretty interesting to see all the special lighting that they had done in the cave to make certain formations stick out.
We also saw the one school that is located out on the Bay. It is a one room school house where all the children that live on the fishing boats attend school. I included a picture of it (blue building). The school is actually funded by the USA. I thought that was amazing that the US is involved.
The ride home was another 3 1/2 hours. It felt a lot longer going back to Ha Noi, even though the distance was the same as the morning ride. I think it was because we were all ready to get back and enjoy the water puppet show.
Ha Long Bay was definitely one of the best things on my Vietnam trip. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life thus far.
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