Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Since our passports are tied up with the Indian embassy until Monday morning we’ve been pretty much stuck in Hanoi. Instead of sweating it out in the city we decided to join our new frienda, Melissa and Hannah on a three day two night tour to HaLong Bay.HaLong bay is about 150km north of Hanoi and is the home to nearly two thousand limestone islands.

Day one of the tour was hands down the best they had to offer. We were picked up at our hotel and started on our way. After only driving 15 minutes we’d already made it out of the city and started seeing some incredible scenery of the Vietnamese countryside. There were bulls and cows wandering up and down the sides of the highway alongside the many locals in their nón lá and loads of wares on bicycle or motorcycle. People were transporting everything from bananas and pineapples to cages full of chickens or pigs. The little towns seemedto spring up out of nothing with rundown but brightly coloured buildings and children running the streets.

After a couple of hours we arrived in HaLong city to board our junk the Hua Phuong 2. The boat was really quite nice with a sundeck and restaurant below. We sailed around the bay while we lied in the sun and enjoyed the views. We docked our junk to walk through one of the many caves they’ve discovered in the islands. I think it would have been really cool had they not decided to glam the cave up and add purple and green spotlights.

After the cave exploration we headed out into the bay on kayaks. The kayaks gave a whole new perspective to the islands. The islands become much larger and a bit more intimidating when you are right at the base in a small little kayak. I think my favourite part of paddling around the islands was getting to watch the people who live and work on the bay. They have these tiny floating houses that are built together in strings of about four. We couldn’t help but stop and watch despite knowing that we were clearly invading on their privacy. Something I’m sure they’ve become quite used to.

The only thing I didn’t like about the place was the amount of garbage and pollution that has accumulated. It’s hard to tell what causes it whether it’s the “villages” who have no other options the junks sailing up and down or the selfish tourists. Either way it ruined the mystique of the place. We ended the day with some dinner and drinks on the boat followed by some karaoke and star gazing. That was probably the first time I’ve seen real stars since I left home. It was long overdue.

The second day was definitely not as good as the first but we still had quite a bit of fun. We spent the afternoon on the beach on Cat Ba Island. Hannah Melissa Jacob and I skipped out on the included meal as we were all getting a little tired of the same rice greens and fish spread we’d had for the last 3 meals. Instead we headed to a local restaurant to get our hands on some western food. It was great except for the cooked cockroach in our fries. Guess they figured we could use the extra protein.