HELLO Ha Long Bay

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It's raining in Hoi An so we'll catch up on some blogging. Hanoi was a bit busy but a great starting off point for some day trips including a 4 hour drive to HaLong Bay which is definitely the most picturesque place we've ever been. We arranged a private boat for 1 night on the White Dolphin. The food was amazing which was a good thing considering that we were eating every few hours!

We kayaked through floating villages where families have been living for generations. They have a small school for the kids where they go until they are 11-12 years old. They mostly sell knickknacks, rent kayaks, fish, etc. to make meager living. They also have a cultured pearl farm that was pretty cool to check out. We saw some really beautiful caves and even took a dip in the cold water. I can't believe I convinced Jeff to go in.

All was going well until the following morning when we got into a little accident with another boat! It was our fault too. Our motor got stuck in some ropes used to tether the floating villages so we lost our momentum and got pulled back into a pretty big boat. We did some minor damage, nothing serious and then they moved on their way! Just like that. We told Ngoc, our tour guide, that everyone would be suing EVERYONE in the US if something like that happened. AND, then our captain had to keep diving underwater to cut the ropes around the motor with a butcher knife which was probably about as sharp as a butter knife. It took him about an hour and a half. BUT, we finally were free! See pics for some more details.

We had one more night in Hanoi before heading to Hoi An, an old trading town on the central coast.

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Photos

Day 1 HaLong Bay
We were pumped to hop on board the White Dolphin.

Chris Chilling Out
Not too shabby. If I had a Corona in hand it might make a good commercial.

Jeff Chilling
Jeff is FINALLY relaxed after Hanoi/Saigon madness

Chris Kayaking
So...we weren't so good at the kayaking. We couldn't get the turning thing down. I mean....at one point we did a full 360. Yep. Was still fun though.

Jeff Self Portrait Whilst Kayaking
Maybe this is why we couldn't figure out how to steer.

Jeff Jumping
Check out this cool picture of Jeff jumping into the chilly water. Ngoc, our tour guide took it. Pretty nice timing on that jump, right?

Chris SORTA Jumping
I mean....isn't Jeff a photographer?! Way to capture the moment buddy. I swear I looked much cooler than this.

Honeymoon Dinner!
The crew presented us with flowers, a cake, and some really cool food art. It was very sweet. We had a romantic dinner out on the deck.

HB Day 2
After some yoga in the morning on deck, we showered up and got ready for some more sight seeing.

Boat Crash
See that boat behind us? Yeah, well we hit it. Just smacked right into it. We were lucky that we didn't push it into that enormous rock. They were able to stop just in time.

Rope in our motor
Check out this rope! Our captain spent a long time diving under to cut this off our motor. We were secretly hoping that we'd be stuck for another night!

Caves!
There are 18 caves in HaLong Bay, this one is the largest. It's pretty spectacular...

Here's our tour guide Ngoc
She was awesome...hooked us up with the best crew and showed us around

Day 2 Lunch
Every meal was about 6 courses. It was nuts. But so delicious...

Lunch Art
Our chef was the best around b/c apparently, he's the best at food art! Check out a sample...

Crew Picture
And here's our crew. They were so great...we had the best time and can't wait to go back!

Comments

[Dad]

Great
Nice work on getting Jeff to Jump into the cold water and NBC confirmed you looked much cooler. Glad the accident was minor and the cave was beautiful. Must have been breathtaking in person..........

[anonymous]

awesome!