Exploring Ha Long Bay

I slept through most of the night but woke up once when I thought I heard a mouse, rat, or something running around my room. I was kind of out of it and fell back to sleep. I was the first one up that morning and found one of the girls up on the top deck sleeping. I would later find out that the mouse was in their cabin and they tried to lock it in the bathroom, but that was not enough security for her and she felt safer up top. We had another amazing meal for breakfast and then continued our journey winding our way through the beautiful maze a head of us, behind us, and all around us.








We also woke up to a handful or merchants that seem to come out of the crevasses of the rock itself. These are basically floating 7-11 stores complete with all the same junk food and mad screaming sales persons. They would come right up to our boat and shout out “Excuse Me”, again and again until we finally acknowledged them. Plus they were fighting among themselves to get the closest to our boat, in a way it was quite comical. Some of my fellow travelers made a purchase or two, but they still seemed to go away mad.


As we slowly creep along we passed this guy either cooking his morning catch or dusting for mosquitoes.


We then came to our first stop of the day, the Bu Moc Islet, a fully enclosed body of water hidden by the towering limestone. However there was a small tunnel like opening that allowed us to take the kayaks inside and explore. It was actually larger than the one the previous day but every bit as magical, even if it was slightly overcast. At least I’m saving on the sunscreen today.




Our next stop was a remote fishing village that largely consisted of either just boats, or floating houses with boats docked to them. It’s amazing that these people can live and survived all the way out here. Just small shacks barely floating and drifting wherever the current takes them. They catch their food daily and capture rain water, and of course they fly the communist flag. But then maybe this is the way man should be living, they do have amazing views that would inspire anyone.








At this point the skies opened up and rain came down in buckets, but it was still as hot as the sun. It lasted about an hour and completely soaked everything. But we had an amazing group of people so it was great to sit around and talk more while waiting for the weather to clear.

We then worked our way to Viet Hai, a beach that we could kayak to and then a short, but very vertical hike to the top for amazing views. As we kayaked over I became quite scared of tipping over as all around the kayak were huge jellyfish. I later thought these bore a remarkable similarity to the fishy things on our salad that night but was told not to worry. Not told they were not jellyfish, just told not to worry. But nothing stung me and it tasted pretty good.








Some see a dead jellyfish washed up on shore, others take it as inspiration to create new meals. I kept my distance as my kid logic saw this coming back to life and jumping on my face, plus I heard they can still sting after they are dead.


We returned to the ship to find it docked with a supply boat. We refueled, got fresh water, and some more amazing fruit before firing up the engines to reach our final destination for the day.


We approached Ti Top just as the sun was setting. This was another limestone island with a thousand extremely steep steps that would take you to the top for breathtaking views, that is if you could catch your breath once you got to the top in the thousand degree heat.






Once everyone got back aboard we anchored for the night. We ate, drank, played cards, and enjoyed the conversation. I cannot imagine a better group of people to make this journey with.