Ha Long Bay

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"Ha Noi" means "the city inside the river". This name was given to the place in 1831 by their king.

We left around 8 30 for the bay with our guide Thio (pronounced "Tao") and he explained a few things to us along the way about their culture. It was very foggy and he said it is like that all year except for in the summer. Also, their main crop is rice (they're the #2 exporter in the world) and they plow during the winter and summer. In the south they can manage three rice crops a year.

Anyways, on the bus we met a nice Norwegian couple, Kjetel (pronounced "shetill") and Heidi, and we chatted with them along the way. We stopped about halfway through the trip to what was pretty much a tourist trap, but they had some nice stuff and the proceeds went to the handicapped.

The first thing we did once we got on the boat, four hours later, was eat lunch. The food was really good and we were all happy. Then we went kayaking to a nearby lagoon. When we got back we tried to take showers, but found that our hot water wasn't working, so we had to move upstairs to a different room. After that we had a nice dinner with special free wine for Christmas and a free cake and then drinks and sang some karaoke. It was really foggy the whole day so the pictures aren't very good.

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