The cruise through Halong Bay began with a three hour van journey to Halong City. While I despise the requisite gift shop stops the rest of the trip was incredibly scenic. For a Vietnamese person I am sure the drive was fairly typical – about as exciting as a trip through wheat and corn fields for a girl from Kansas.
Nevertheless, I thought the rice fields were gorgeous. Bright, almost neon fields of rice went on and on and on. It was the best ‘picture card’ moment of all my travels. I’ve seen these sights before and knew (almost) that these sites must exist somewhere. To see that materialize was in the flesh was incredible. People wearing rice bamboo hats tended the rice and bicycled from plot to plot. Water buffaloes pulled plows through the fields and could even be seen napping in the swampy rice beds.
Another jaw-dropping site was the ultra utilization of motorbikes. Crates of pigs, chickens, chics, eggs were all strapped on the back. We spotted towering amounts of baskets, ladders, air conditioners, refrigerators, and dead cows on mopeds.
We reached our destination about noon and departed for our cruise through Halong Bay. We decided to skimp a bit on our hotel and take the newest boat, or junk, as they are called. Our boat had a crew of about ten and five cabins. The rooms were great and the sun deck provided fabulous views. On our way out we stopped at the largest fishing village in Vietnam. The best part of it was the kids who tried to row out to the boat so they could be pulled behind us.
Before dinner we went sea kayaking to an island where we walked up a bazillion stairs for amazing views of the bay. Sea kayaking was pleasantly one of the highlights of the trip. One of the other couples on the trip seemed to think they owned the book of know-it-all. I am not convinced it was in their possession especially after we blew past them on our kayak. Take that!!!! Note to readers: Team know-it-all might not have known we were engaged in a race.
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