Twenty-third Day - Hallong Bay 11/24/10

Sumner

Well today was our second day on the water. I woke up and was hoping to see the sunrise but since it was so hazy you couldn’t see the sun. We enjoyed the scenery that we could see and then went up for thirty miniutes. It was interesting, kinda like a cross betwene yoga and dancing and taekwondokarate (whatever you want to call it). After tai chi we went down to breakfast. It was a buffet breakfast with all sorts of bread and fruits and pancakes and french toast and egg and pho and noodles and fried rice. They had a good mix of western and Vietnamese food. Anyway we ate our breakfast and then sailed to Ti Top Island where the people on the boat who were only going for two days got off. By the way, there is a choice of a two of three day tour of Hallong bay. We went with the three day tour because we could really expeirience it. This is how it works. The big boats like the ones that we stayed in come out of dock each day. Do all the things that we did on the first day and then spend the night. In the morning the people going for a three day tour get onto a day-boat and do the things that I will write about in just a moment. The big ship goes back to port and gets more people and then comes back to meet up with the day boat and picks the people back up. Then the next day the three day people do what the tow day people did the day before and the cycle starts over again. That way they can two and three day people all on one boat. So because Te Top was what we were going to do on the third day we didn’t go this time. After we dropped them off we got into the tender and were taken to a day boat. It wasn’t anything special, just six tables lined up along the sides with wood benches on the fron and the back of them. The boat had life jackets which is always a good sign. In the back there was a little kitchen/nap room for the crew and if you went around that you would be at the bathroom. All that I have described so far has been on the first level so I will move to the top level and telll you what is up there. Basicly it is just the captian’s area and a deck with a few chairs. Anyway we sailed for a while at a good clip but about half way through our journey to Cat Ba Island the engine had troubles and we slowed down allot. We saw ships that were over the horison come and slowly overtake us. We made it to Cat Ba island safely though. We got out of the boat and were given a choice of going on a motorcycle or a bike. We went with the bike because we could enjoy the scenery better. Then we biked to a village. It wasn’t very big but we saw some activity. It was basicly just three streets. One leading into the village and a road leading off of that to another road. All around the village were rice patties. Anyway we got to the end of the trail/road we got off our bikes and went on a hike through the forest. It was almost as if we flew back to Colorado in an instant and were hiking thorugh the forest. The only diference was that it was very hot and had more exotic plants. It was wierd but there were no birds! We didn’t see them flying of hear them sining, there was absolutely no sign that there were any birds. We asked the guide and hea said that they are hunted for food and that’s why there aren’t any birds. We hiked up for a while and then got to a cave. It wasn’t very big but it was still dark. After the cave we went back down to our bikes and went back to the dock. Lunch was readdy for us so we ate. The food was very good and we even got brave enough to eat some squid! Dad tasted it and said it was like cucumber. I tried it and I guess that I can see why he compaired it to cucumber because it is sorta cruchy at the beginning. After the crunch though feels like you are eating rubber. After lunch we sailed to a protected cove and got off to kyak. Mom and I went togather and dad and Hannah went together. We went to a big opening that led us to another open area. The tide was obdviously going out bacause we had to paddle upstream to get to the second area for kyaking. We paddled in the cove for a while looking at the beautiful scenery . Mom and I even went into a fishing net on accident! After we paddled for a while we went back through the tunnel and to the day boat. We managed to get on safely without falling in but one person in the group fell in. We then went back to the big boat and then sailed to the docking place for the night. Then we had dinner which was a set meal of all sorts of different seafoods. It was very fancy everything was presented nicely, they never just plopped it on the plate. It was also the first time that I was served a meal in courses like that. We had many apitizers, a main meal and a desert. After dinner we flopped into bed.