Our First Typhoon

Monster Head
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Well, following the advice, and trail, of everyone we've met who has been to Vietnam we decided to book a three day boat ride through Ha Long Bay.  Much like southern Thailand, the geography of Ha Long Bay is renowned for its numerous limestone rocks that dramatically dot the emerald ocean water.

The name Ha Long translates into "Descending Dragon", stemming from a Vietnamese myth that tells of the bay being formed by a dragons tail smashing into the ground as the dragon descended back into the sea after it arose in Ha Noi ("ascending dragon").  Just a little nugget of information for everyone.

Our First Boat
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Anyway, like most asian tours our trip began by driving around Hanoi, in no particular order, to pick up people until the minibus was overfilled by one person.  Fortunately, since we opted for the nicer tour we did not have a bus overfilled by more.  After a three hour drive north we were dropped off at the Ha Long peer along with the 1,000 other tourists who were going on a tour that day.  Our guide quickly secured a Junk (boat) for us, and before we knew it we were walking through, around, and on top of all the other junks that were parked in front of ours.  Once on board and moving we were informed that there was a Typhoon in route to the coast, so our itinerary had been changed so as to try to avoid sleeping on the junk in the midst of a tropical storm.  We did not complain. After a short tour of a cave that looked like it was designed by Walt Disney himself, we were taken out to Cat Ba Island to stay for the night.

Halong Bay Docks
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Since we were stuck with the worst and most boring group we have ever had, our stay on the island (in reality the whole trip) was painfully dry.  We tried to talk to our fellow group members, but after a baragh of "yes" "no" answers, we gave up and retired to our room with some beer.

During the night the storm hunkered down and started pouring rain.  We figured that our kayaking trip the next day would be cancled due to the rain, but we were wrong.  We headed out bright and early to a boat dock where we boarded a smaller craft which took us out to the kayaks.  The boat ride was gorgeous!  The rain was moving in and around the limestone cliffs which created a dreamscape environment.  The color of everything was so lush and green, and the water was so peaceful that we really could have kept boating around all day and we would have been perfectly happy.  However, amid pouring rain, lightning and thunder, and against better judgment we ended up doing about two hours of kayaking.  Since we returned unscaved we can say that it was a beautiful and peacful experience, though had you of asked Sus her opinion mid way through you would have gotten a different response. Sus must have said this line multiple times as the thunder came closer: "I was always told that when there is lightning get out of the water!"

Halong Bay Docks
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Long story short, after kayaking we got on another junk and continued navigating our way through the bay.  The Typhoon never really took hold of the area, but the rain persisted for the rest of the trip. We were eventually saved from our group by a few Irish who joined our group late on the second day.  So, as everyone else sat in total silence for dinner that night, we sat at another table talking and drinking beer with the Irish. Thank God for the Irish!  After a night in a pretty nice room on the Junk we headed back to the docks and back to Hanoi. All and all an ok experience.