VIETNAM #2: HA LONG BAY + animatedGIFs!
Brace yourselves for some #homemade #animatedgif action! #gopro #boomerang #premierepro
One cannot simply just walk into Ha Long Bay ...
a #backflip is the only right answer
VIETNAM #2: HA LONG BAY
Leaving Hanoi early in the morning for our 3days/2nights adventure in Ha Long Bay, we took a transfer bus which took 5-hours before arriving at Ha Long Bay Port. It was quite crowded, full of tourists all waiting to board around 50 cruise boats (which each can typically house around 20 guests). After boarding, it still took a 1 hour boat trip to arrive at the bay where most boats set for anchor. Luckily, I never get easily bored:
Our first mandatory stop was some big cave, which could be nice to see if there weren't 87 elderly tourists slow-walking five steps a minute in front of us, like we were all in the waiting line to exit the cave. But it was still unique to see western backpacking millennials visiting the same touristic attractions as Chinese elderly.
After the cave, we went out canoeing and we actually were just in time to see the sunset (yet again), which resulted in some good shots:
Dinner on the boat was marvellous! Every five minutes a new plate was delivered with delicious food I've never even heard of! After dinner I tried catching squids with my GoPro stuck on a selfie stick using some leftovers as bait but I had no luck, until eventually I succeeded and caught 1 tiny squid!
The next morning our boat group was split up: some people only booked a 1 night stay, some people went to Cat Ba Island, but we stayed another day in Ha Long Bay and were transferred to a temporary boat. We visited Ti Top Island and climbed to the top for a great view.
After that, we went deeper into the bay where we took a kayak and we were allowed to freely kayak around, so we kayaked near some islands because the guide said there were monkeys...unfortunately there weren't any real ones, I only saw one: he was sitting right behind me and his name was Patrick from Austin - lil s/o to all dem other backpackin' Americans! 🙋♂️
After having again a 10-coursed lunch, the captain allowed us to jump off the boat and swim a little bit, and afterwards we visited a floating pearl farm. Interesting, but we weren't the target audience they aimed for (I'm thinking those elderly Asian people)...
Upon returning to our boat, I saw a small boat undocking from our boat - it was the fisherwoman, she selled some fish to the cook, so I asked whether they would pose with the fresh fish that they'd cook for us, and they were proud to do so :D
We also found out that a new group had arrived on our boat: during dinner at our table we were accompanied by a Chinese family (another s/o to #cn again 🇨🇳) , which all of them couldn't speak a single word English. But they were very friendly, plus I actually know some Chinese words (I've worked in a Chinese/Indonesian restaurant back home) so I was able to break the ice quite quickly #nihao #mamansekkaa #sheashea #phoneticallyspeaking
The next morning on our way back to the harbour, we had a create-your-own-fresh-spring-roll-workshop. That felt really compulsory, and most of us went quickly outside to enjoyed the astounishing scenery of islands passing by. My new Chinese auntie even wanted me to take a picture with them (I reckon for their own personal blog obviously).
After arriving at the Ha Long Bay Port, we took the 5-hour busdrive back to Hanoi, where we head out to our next stop:
Next stop: Hoi An!
Thank you for reading!
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Yes, I see that just now. I'm really glad I came back to see them. Sorry I didn't wait for the load the first time. Nice backflip skills too by the way.
thanks! the hardest part was jumping back from the water back onto the boat, but I managed 🤓