Vietnam- boat tour of Halong Bay

Trip Start Mar 01, 2008
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19
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Trip End Sep 2008


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Where I stayed
on the boat
(Halong Bay hotels)

Flag of Vietnam  ,
Thursday, August 21, 2008

From Hanoi, we took a few hours drive to see the amazing site of Halong Bay, on a three day boat tour.  Halong Bay is a UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ) World Heritage Site, sites that are preserved and protected for their natural or cultural beauty and significance in the world.  The significance of Halong Bay is that it is made up of thousands giant limestone pillars jutting out of the ocean, and is uninhabited by man, except for the local floating fishing villages that have houses on the water.  There are many caves that make up this area as well.  On our tour, we spent the first day floating along the ocean soaking in the amazing beauty and serenity of the cliffs and virtually quiet except for the boat.  We made a stop and took some kayaks out around the boat and through a small cave,  stopped off at some caves to explore by foot, and continued saling into the evening.  We docked for the night at dark, and linked up our boat with two others, which you could climb over the railings and hang out on the other boats.  The boat next to our had karaoke, and many of us hung out drinking, playing cards, and signing dreadfully drive to halong bay
drive to halong bay
 .  We had about 15 people on the boat, and we had a good group of people that were friendly and from different backgrounds, and enjoyed each other's company for our time on the tour.  We slept in small cabins on the lower part of the boat which consisted of a bed and a small bathroom.  Not so bad for $50 for the whole tour plus food.  The second day we sailed back to land, and included in our package was 'mountain hiking'- not really my thing but felt accomplished when reaching the top of a mountain, though tired and exhausted.  We were given a hotel to stay at our second night, and after lunch we took a short boat ride to nearby 'monkey island', a small beach island with some monkeys running around.  The next morning we drove back to Hanoi, seeing the countryside of rice fields and water buffalo.

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boats docked boats docked boats boats passing the 'stairway' to our boat passing the 'stairway' to our boat more boats more boats
the pillars the pillars fishing boat fishing boat ray on top deck ray on top deck big boat big boat
renee on top deck renee on top deck limestone limestone limestone pillars limestone pillars boat line up for caves boat line up for caves
cliffs cliffs our boat our boat penguin trash can penguin trash can sign sign
entering cave entering cave cave interior cave interior caves caves dragon eyes cave dragon eyes cave
giant american giant american ray in cave ray in cave more cave more cave cave stuff cave stuff
ray caves ray caves cave light cave light light hole light hole caveeee caveeee
cave cave cave cave ray cavee ray cavee outside cave outside cave ray halong ray halong
renee ray renee ray more caves more caves renee outside caves renee outside caves renee cave renee cave
ray graffiti cave ray graffiti cave renee caves renee caves cave hole cave hole floating fishing village floating fishing village
more cliffs more cliffs cliffs and fishing village cliffs and fishing village kayak stop kayak stop big cliff big cliff
vietnamese boat vietnamese boat little fishing boat little fishing boat ray boat ray boat floating fishing villages floating fishing villages
more village more village fishing houses fishing houses fishing house and boat fishing house and boat fisher house fisher house
ray ray vietnam ray ray vietnam beautifual scenery beautifual scenery renee top deck renee top deck renee cliffs renee cliffs
renee boat cliffs renee boat cliffs fun day fun day ray sailor ray sailor scenery and long boat scenery and long boat
ray chair ray chair saling saling cliff passage cliff passage more formations more formations
beauty beauty floating through the cliffs floating through the cliffs magic scenery magic scenery cliff close up cliff close up
halong bay halong bay bay cliffs bay cliffs we stopped for a swim we stopped for a swim ray swimming ray swimming
halongggg halongggg view from deck chair view from deck chair mountain climbing mountain climbing mountain tops mountain tops
mountain view mountain view renee climbed a mountain renee climbed a mountain exhaustion exhaustion i did it i did it
tired tired mt view mt view scenery scenery panaromic view panaromic view
trees trees mts mts treetops treetops vietnam view vietnam view
more treetops more treetops mtsss mtsss very top tower very top tower ray mt top ray mt top
1-trees 1-trees 1-ray mt top 1-ray mt top deer deer sad caged monkey sad caged monkey
park employee houses park employee houses houses mountain bottom houses mountain bottom cat ba bay cat ba bay floating villages floating villages
color boat color boat fish boat fish boat fishing fishing monkey monkey
monkey island monkey island monkey in tree monkey in tree ray at monkey island ray at monkey island ray climbing down ray climbing down
ray sun ray sun no wheels no wheels tandem bike tandem bike long long boat long long boat
long boat morning long boat morning morning fog morning fog early fog rising early fog rising morning sky morning sky
drive back to hanoi drive back to hanoi rice field rice field rice fields rice fields more rice more rice
fields fields green fields green fields rice rice rice fields water rice fields water
rice rice rice rice cow eating a tree cow eating a tree corn sales corn sales 1-fields 1-fields
village village
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