01/16/14-01/18/14

"Ready...One...Two...Three...Jump!" I jump as high as I can and almost immediately feel gravity pulling me back to the surface and then 'Splash'! The shock of the icy cold water chills me to the bone and I immediately rise to the surface. "Oh My Gawd, this is sooo cold!" I swim to the ladder, as quickly as I could, and climb out of the chilly water and back onto the boat, immediately grabbing a towel to dry off and warm up. I am surprised to find that it is actually warmer outside of the water than in it! Daniel, Jo and I all agree that it was stupid to jump into the water and that there was no way we would be doing that again! However, two or three beers later and 'what the hell, let's give it one more try!' And back into the water we go!

World famous Halong Bay is in Northern Vietnam and is comprised of thousands of tiny islands and karst-like formations. Its name literally translates to mean 'descending dragon', which comes from an ancient legend. The legend tells the story of in ancient times the people of Vietnam were attacked by ocean-faring invaders from the North. A huge dragon came to protect the Vietnamese people and destroyed the invaders with fire and large emeralds from its mouth. The emeralds fell from its mouth to form the islands of Halong Bay, which served as a defensive wall against the invaders. And so the bay is named after the area where the dragon descended from heaven to protect the Vietnamese.

In Hanoi, I signed up for a 3-day, 2-night cruise on Halong Bay. The morning of the first day, I woke up early and got on the bus for the 4 hour drive to the Bay. Along the way, we were told that we would be stopping at one point to take a break. Strangely, the stop was only about an hour into the ride and we didn't just stop at some rest stop area, we stopped at a giant warehouse, that had lots of marble statues out front. Basically, it was a tourist trap. We were forced to walk through the warehouse, because the bus would be picking us up at the other side of the building. The warehouse was also a bit of a maze, with lots of different Vietnamese crafts items on sale. They had some food items, but with insane prices, so I didn't buy anything. I wasn't about to spend $4 for a small bag of M&Ms! The bus would take us to a similar type "rest stop" on the way back to Hanoi, as well, which I found mightily annoying.

Finally, we made it out to the boat, where I found that on the first night I would have a cabin to myself. It was a small, but cosy cabin, which had a very interesting picture on the wall. It must have the honeymoon cabin, because there was a painting of a naked women above my bed! I didn't really mind the painting of course, but I did find it pretty amusing.

After settling into our cabins, we then set sail on Halong Bay. There were several other people on the cruise with me, an Indian family from California, a young English couple, a couple of Germans, a Brazilian family and two sisters from Canada. We sailed into the Bay, passing by several small islands and many karst formations. The scenery was very serene and beautiful.

After a short cruise through some of the islands, we came to our first destination, an old grotto cave on one of the islands. The cave was a large cave with lots of different rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites. There were several different colored lights set up in the cave to give it an ethereal atmosphere. Our guide pointed out several different rock formations that looked like various things, including an old man, a bear, a turtle and one that looked like an erect penis. Amusingly, the erect penis seemed to be pointed directly at a large hole in the ceiling of the cave. Finally, we were led out of the top of the cave and were awarded with a stunning view over the Bay. It was truly a breathtaking sight!

After stopping by a little beach, in which it was just too cold to really enjoy, and watching the sunset over the Bay, we were provided with dinner. The food was really good and consisted of several dishes of Vietnamese food, including rice, vegetable dishes, chicken dishes and mangos for dessert, among other things. I enjoyed the dinner. Then after dinner, we had a choice of what we could do, either sing karaoke or do some squid fishing. My choice was to drink some beer with some of the other passengers!

Later, I would try some squid fishing, in which I actually caught a squid! I was one of only two people on the boat to do so. The squid very fairly small, about 8 to 12 inches long, but they did put up a bit of a fight. The one I caught was spraying ink everywhere! Luckily, I didn't actually bring it into the boat and so there were just patches of ink in the water. After I caught it, I let it go. I continued to try to catch another one, but didn't have any more luck.

The next day, most of the people on the boat went back to Hanoi, as they only signed up for one night. I was left with the Brazilian family and the English couple, Jo and Daniel. Jo and Daniel were from from Brighton, England and were both surgical techs. I really enjoyed hanging out with and talking with them on this trip. They seemed to get along really well and were always lightly teasing each other about certain things. We talked about everything from the antics they would get up to and see in the surgical setting to adult onesies to eating just the chocolate shell of a peanut M&M, without damaging the peanut! Jo was very good at doing that! They were very wonderful people.

On the second day, the ship brought us to a pearl factory, where they harvest pearls from the freshwater oysters, a fish farm, and they brought us out kayaking. Only myself and Jo and Daniel went kayaking, though. I partnered with one of the crew members, while Jo and Daniel partnered together. We were able to kayak through several small caves and into more isolated coves of the Bay. The islands would rise up from the waters like small mountains and in the isolated coves, we were surrounded by the forest covered rocks. If we looked closely into the forests, we could see wild monkeys swinging in the branches and we could hear them screaming out to each other.

The second day is when, Jo, Daniel and I took our plunge into the Bay. It all started when one of the crew members of the ship, kept asking us when we were going to go swimming. Frankly, it was very chilly out and so the idea of swimming did not appeal to me or anyone, for that matter. However, he kept asking and as a joke would say that we wouldn't get dinner until we went swimming. We didn't really take the idea seriously at first, but after a couple of beers, it started to sound like an intriguing idea. Eventually, we got up enough courage, and Jo, Daniel and I decided to take the plunge. We went in to get changed to our swimming suits and then met up on the deck. The boat had two decks and so we decided to jump off the top deck, which was about 10 to 15 feet above the water. We got up to the top and on the count of the three jumped into the water. The temperature of the water was very cold, but it was an exhilarating feeling! After the first jump, we weren't planning on jumping in again, but a few beers later we changed our mind and jumped in one more time. Each time, we were out of the water almost as soon as we got into it. Despite the cold, it was a lot of fun!

Finally, on the third day, Daniel and I did a little more kayaking in the morning and then the boat made its way back to port, passing some gorgeous scenery along the way. We then got back on the bus and made our way back into Hanoi, where I would say my goodbyes to Daniel and Jo. I really had a great time on Halong Bay. The food was good, the scenery was stunning and the companionship was wonderful. Due to the fact that Halong Bay is so famous for its beauty, it is very well known and so there are lots of tourists cruises and tourists around. Some people may be annoyed by the touristiness of the area, but the striking beauty of Halong Bay is not something that should be missed. I enjoyed the few days I was able to see Halong Bay and will definitely never forget getting up the nerve to take the icy plunge into the Bay.