Ha Long Way from Home

We spent the last two days on a cruise through Ha Long Bay.  This has easily been one of the most beautiful locations we have visited in the last four months of traveling.  Ha Long Bay is located in the northern part of Vietnam, almost at the Chinese border.  The area contains almost 2000 separate islands that pop out of the sea like some mythical land.

The first day started out with some torrential rain that thankfully let up, but left us with a cloudy first day.

The view from our cabin door

Rain at first but also heat

One of the other boats

Floating stores! Beer, cigarettes, choco-pies

We also got to visit an enormous cave in one of the islands.  Most of my pictures didn't really turn out, but it was a really interesting cave.  There are a couple people in the foreground for perspective.

We got to kayak around the first day for about an hour.  We went around a couple of the islands and checked out one of the fishing villages.

Sunset and some of the cool island formations

We got sun the next morning

View from our room the next morning

 We also got a "cooking lesson" which involved learning how to roll spring rolls.  It is exactly like rolling a burrito so we were pros!

It was absolutely magnificent being out in the water among the islands in Ha Long Bay. Words don't do justice to the natural beauty, and neither do our pictures. We could have easily stayed a couple more days taking in the scenery and relaxing on the upper deck. For anyone planning a trip to Vietnam (which we highly recommend) Ha Long Bay is essential!