Good Morning Vietnam….Halong Bay Style

We left Hanoi around 8am to head to Halong Bay. It took us 4 hours to get to Ha Long City where we boarded our boat, the Lagoon Explorer. The boat could fit 8 guests but there were only 4 of us – Darsh/I and another couple, Pascal and Miriam from Holland (You can also book the Red Dragon which fits more people but was already sold out). The boat was pretty nice and was staffed with 8 people from the chef, waiter, tour guide, engineer, sailor, etc….all this for only 4 people!

The second we got on the boat we knew we were worlds away from the craziness of Hanoi. It was really stunning. Halong Bay has thousands of large limestone karsts (or rocks….they are insane!). Halong Bay literally means descending dragon bay, which comes from the Vietnamese legend that dragons created the karsts/isles to develop a wall for protection.

We sailed around most of the day but made stops to swim and kayak. The water was really warm and I love kayaking! We also got to see this ridiculously large cave made in one of the limestone rocks.

We had all our meals on the boat, which were fantastic – papaya salad (we had some version of this every meal which made me really happy!), fresh seafood, chicken and beef stir-fry, and lots of fruit. They even brought us a cake for Pascal and Miriam's anniversary! We spent the night on the boat which was surprisingly pretty comfortable and it was fun hearing Pascal and Miriam’s adventures traveling to Mount Everest Base Camp on their trip….which I could never ever do!

We were hoping to see the sunrise from the boat but unfortunately they docked in between large limestone rocks so you couldn’t see the sunrise. We were both kind of annoyed about that but as it turned out there wasn’t much of a sunrise anyway….. After getting up, we sailed over to a floating fishing village. Really it was the coolest thing. Everything was on floating stilts. I’m still not sure how that works but I think I saw lots of styrofoam-type supports (Darsh reminded me though that they stopped using styrofoam and now use floating barrels). I’m sure it was a lot more complicated but it hurt my head trying to figure it out. Anyway, it was totally impressive. This whole village was totally functioning on the water. They even had a school! And the people were so welcoming and friendly.

I would have never believed you can do so much with so little. It really just opens your eyes to how other people live….and at the same time reminds me how lucky I am. :)

The whole Halong Bay trip was an amazing experience – from the bay itself, to the company, to the food, to a night on a boat, to the incredible little fishing village.