Halong Bay Trip

Hannah

 Sorry I have not been able to post my blogs. But I will tell you all about our adventures at Halong Bay. First we had a four hour drive to Halong Bay. ( Not a bad drive.) We arrived at a place that sold a lot of different stuff. It went from Jewelry to food. Of course we did not buy anything. I felt sorry for the driver because my dad had spilled some red juice on the floor.( I do not know why he brought the juice in the car in the first place.) So the poor guy had to clean up the mess. He had said we would have a 15 minute break. I think that was his lunch break.Then when dad thought the 15 minutes were up, we started looking for our driver. We found out that he was still in the middle of eating his lunch, so we started out again. When we got there. we were welcomed with wet towels,( that’s the custom in Vietnam.)and tea. We waited for a while and then got ushered to the HUMONGOUS boat. Well it was big, but since I am small, it seemed that big. We had a warm welcome of rose pedals falling on our heads.( Pretty fancy stuff huh?) Then we  got directed to the dining room. It was set with fancy glasses,plates, and the napkins were folded into the shape of a kind of bird.We had a speech from the manager, and then got our keys to our rooms. Sumner and I shared a room together.( Away from the adults.) We looked at our room, and then headed back upstairs for a yummy buffet lunch. I do not remember what there was, but it was good anyway. The first thing we did was go on a boat to this really cool cave. It had three different chambers in it. The first chamber was 300 square meters, the second chamber was 400 square meters, and the third one was 900 square meters. They were huge. And if you had a good imagination, you could see different animals, and people in the rocks. Got to go!            T.B.C

Well. I am sorry for the delay, so back to the story. After the cave, we went back to the boat. Then we went on  a tender (a small ferry boat that we carried behind our ship) for a ride around the biggest fishing village in Halong Bay.  Let me tell you about the fishing village.  The houses were floating in the middle of the ocean, not sitting on land.  They could just walk out on their front porch and fall in the water.  That is why the kids have to learn to swim before they learn how to walk.  There were lots of boats and traps and people  and there were even dogs!  There was also a school, but instead of reading, writing and arithmetic, they focus on swimming and fishing.  After that we got time to hang out til dinner. We had a set meal of different seafoods.

 Well, toady at 6:30 AM,Sumner and I went up to the sundeck for about half and hour of Tai Chi. Tai Chi is kind of like Yoga, but it is not very stretching. We basically did some really slow dancing. Then we had a buffet breakfast and headed out on our day boat. On our day boat we wen to Cat Ba Island. We rode adult bikes a long way to this village. Cause I am kind of small, I had troubles riding my bike, cause on the way back to the dock, I fell off of my bike. It was not fun but of course, I got back on the  bike.When we  had stopped at the village, our group of 17 people went on a hike through the forest. After that we headed back to the dock. They had gotten lunch all ready on the boat, so we just sat down on the boat and ate. Sumner and I had a little bit of  Jelly Fish. You can see the pictures we took to. It was  pretty nasty stuff. After we sailed for a LONG time, we FINALLY arrived at the place where we went kayaking.It was REALLY hard to paddle, especially when your dad makes you do all of the work. Also, this one guy from our boat was getting  off of the kayak, and he lost his balance and went toppling into the water. It was a very funny sight. That night we had musssel for dinner. (At least for part of our 6 course meal.) Then we went to bed.

      This morning is our last day  at Halong Bay. I think that Halong  Bay is the most wonderful place in the world.  Well again we had the Breakfast Buffet, as I call it. The first place we went was to a mountain called Tee Top Island. You had to go 422 steps to get to the top of the mountain. Though I am glad that we went, because there was an amazing and spectacular veiw. We  had the choice of going swimming, but the air and water was quite cold. When we went back onto the BIG boat,we sailed for about 30 minutes and arrived at the dock. Maybe I should say the private dock because there are not a million different boats at the dock.

   We just got to back to the hotel. I am sad bacause today is our last day in Hanoi. So we went on our first and last cyclo ride. I already told you about them, but I will say it was kind of strange going around the city in a cart,AND a lot of people stare at you. when we finished our tour on the cyclo’s, we got back to the hotel.Since it was our last day in the Elagance and Hanoi, so we got a lot of the staff in a really awesome picture. This morning I woke up and I rememberedthat today we leave Hanoi. ( But Sumner and I HAVE to come back to Hanoi and the Elangance because the manager at the hotel told us we had to promise him we would come back to Vietnam with good jobs.) 

   Well today we leave Hanoi for good. Not come, go, come, go etc. I am really disapointed because we have met a lot of nice young men, young woman and even a few elderly people. I hate to leave Hanoi.

           **                         ANNOUNCEMENTS!!!**

                              We might not be able to get conection to the Internet till
                               Ho Chi Minh City.(mabe five days.) So don’t be worried
                                if we do not post any blogs.

                                                          ~Hannah~