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Published: April 5th 2008
It is difficult to keep this up to date as Giles and I are traveling quickly and don't often have time. Now we are in a completely different part of Vietnam. We are in Hue (There should be an accent over the e). We arrived this morning after a gruelling fourteen hour over-night bus ride. Giles and I decided to save money and take the soft seated bus rather than the sleeper. It was really worth it. Please note the sarcasm. I don't think either of us slept a wink because of the confined space and the Vietnamese version of a cross between Prince and -------- on a forty minute musical rotation. Both of us can now sing along well enough for karaoke. The funniest part of the journey was when the bus driver left a passenger at a pee break spot in the middle of no-where. He had a cell so we turned around and picked him up.
Anyway, our story is not about that, really. It is about our trip to Halong Bay. The Bay is located West of Hanoi and is worth it -- regardless of what happens along the way. The Bay itself is littered with massive rocks jutting out of the water. The Vietnamese folk lore says that a dragon went throught the area, which was originaly mountainous, thrashing its tail and creating all sorts of neat shapes and caves. The Geologists say it is the result of Africa(?) and Asia smashing up together. The plates are breaking up. We're not really sure who is on the right track but we are thinking that it may have involved a variety of dragons and unicorns fighting for leadership of the world and when the cow jumped over the moon, everything was settled. Thus-- Halong Bay.
Our trip there started out like any other. We joined our tour group and set out. After a three hour drive we arrived at the Bay where they promptly took our passports. Ummmm -- open water clause? We then waited while they prepared the boat. We spent our time on shore getting to know the other passengers and were soon to realise that everyone paid different amounts for the cruise. Our minds quickly side tracked to: "How are they going to sort the classes." Memories of the Titanic (movie) also crossed our minds. Unfortunately it was warm, so Giles and I would not be spending the night on an iceburg singing Celine Dion. Fortunatley, Giles and I paid the middle amount and were given 1st class. The couple who paid 40$ more were not. Sucks to be them. After sitting for lunch, on the boat, we were off. The view was beautiful and because it was slightly overcast it reminded a few of us of the movie "Pirates of the Carribean." Later on, after a few beers, we decided that we would assume the personas of those pirates. Arrrrrrrggh. It never panned out.
On the first day, we drove through the beautiful formations and then took a tour through the most enormous cave we had ever seen. The ceiling looked like the waves that had moulded it. After we emerged from our trek, we were quick to realize that our boat was broken. Many of you may not know this but Giles and I have been on three boat tours and all three times something has happened to cause us to be stranded in the middle of the ocean. The first time, our boat broke down between sights in Thailand in the middle of a storm, the second was in the Philipines when our sail boat ran out of wind and the current was dragging us out to sea. Finally (cross your fingers), This last time was the kicker. We emerged from the cave only to find our boat partially grounded and broken beyond repair. It was the engine. Thank God the sister boat was close at hand. We hopped on the working boat and were taken over to the broken boat where they tied rope to it in order to begin towing. Fair enough. After they towed it to a nice enough spot, both boats dropped anchor for the night. Hmmmm. This was at 5. Fine, we thought, as long as we have a safe boat tied to us. The next day when the safe boat left, we began to wonder. What the..... So, we went kayaking. We did very well for our first time. We remained stranded until noon when another ship came to take us into port. Our two day, one night BOAT tour involved three hours on a boat that could move under its own power. Thankfully there was a great group of people with us on the boat. We had a blast with everyone.
More later. Bye
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Where to next?? Are you gonna have time for europe before James' wedding??