Halong Bay

                                           
                                             The day begins with a sprinkle of these .......

At 6AM this is what I woke up to.  Can you imagine?  I bounded out of bed, was up, dressed and out the door - 73 seconds..... up to deck 13 to take photos. It was a grey, moisture-heavy-drizzley-foggy day with a sun in hiding. But, that did not deflate my excitement, enthusiasm, or expectations for what was coming...my visit to Halong Bay! :) I love how the jagged peaks push themselves out of the water.

We are docked in the Gulf of Tonkin, east of Hanoi.  Legend has it Tarsque, an 80 foot dragon haunts this bay. All of the peaks were made by Tarsque slapping and thrashing his tail. The snake like fellow looks like Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster, I was told. Our guide told us there are about 1,969 of these mountains scattered in the area.

 
As you travel closer to land, you begin to see more and more ..... some are huge ..... some taller then the ship...like a mountain, some in groups..... some alone, solitary, no friend in site, and some so tiny
you barely see them on the surface.

 



Sometimes friends stop by to say Hello!  Welcome back!!!



Sometimes they are just passing by, deeply engrossed in their everyday life.

 






We embarked on a private tour I arranged back in Tucson over the Internet.  We asked 8 fellow passengers, four were from David's trivia group. He plays trivia every sea day at noon with them. The other four we were people from our Travel Agency group. One is in my computer class.

 

This is the Junk boat I rented for our tour. It had a great sun deck- which we never needed.  BUT would have been great if the sun ever came out and it warmed up. Maybe next time.

 

The inside was nice, roomy for the 10 of us. We were served a nice seafood lunch. Most people ate
.... :) and seemed to enjoy it.

 

When I went up to the bridge, look who I found steering the ship.  Buddy! Smiling ear to ear.  Making memories.



I love how people sell food from their boats. Can't imagine a lot of money comes in this way to feed a family. People on the pier can look down into the boats to see what they have and order it up. Food comes up in a basket. Money goes down the basket. There is live fish in the nets in the water around the boats. Cold soda, beer, hot potatoes, fish, and corn on the cob cooking...... Smelled really good.

 






We visited Hang Dau Do and toured the massive grotto. It was pretty inside. I felt dizzy for some reason. Maybe all the stairs. The guide told me there were 500 stairs total in all- up down and all around. I was sure it was more like 5,029 or even 8,000, at least it felt that way.

 
Halong Bay is all about the scenery. It is so quiet, peaceful, calm, serene.

 








People on our tour had a wonderful time. Me too.

Tonight is dinner at Prego with the Judge and his wife..... a new magic show. :)

Chan May, Vietnam tomorrow. We have a private tour again. This one includes a foot massage. :)