For our first full weekend in Vietnam, our group explored the beauty which is Halong Bay!
Early Saturday morning, we all hopped in a 24-passenger van and were off for the weekend.
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| farmers transplanting rice we passed on our way to the bay. |
Overall, the trip was about a four hour drive, but with plenty of extra seats to spread out in, the drive wasn’t bad at all. We made a stop in the middle of the drive to a huge tourist “pit stop” full with crowded buses and plenty of foreign travelers looking for a bathroom and a snack.
We arrived at the dock of Halong Bay at around noon and boarded our boat!
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| our boat! |
Apparently Halong Bay is a very popular tourist destination, with most foreigners renting private boats to take them out to explore the bay for two days and a night, which is what we did.
Once onboard, we were fed a (roughly) 7-course seafood lunch.
Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of seafood so I indulged more in the pork dish, rice, and crinkle-cut French fries!
After our delicious lunch, we all went to the upper deck to enjoy the view!
The water is so incredibly calm, it is almost kind of eerie. With the style of our boat, combined with the fog and the nature of the water, it almost felt as though we were in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
The large rocks throughout the bay are beautiful, and it is truly mesmerizing how calm and slow moving the water is.
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| view from our deck. |
Saturday was pretty cold, especially with the wind, so we were all a little freezing and huddling around with all of our possible layers on. I tried reading for a while, but got super tired and opted for a nap instead.
I’m not sure how long I slept for (maybe between one and two hours), but when I woke up I felt as though I had just had an entire night’s sleep – it was really weird.
Once most of us had woken up from our post-lunch naps, it was just about time for our first stop in the bay – Hang Sung Sot cave!
We quickly found that since there are a lot of tourist boats constantly touring the bay, most of us usually end up at the different sights around the same time.
Our boat just pulls up to the dock at the cave, we hop off, tour the cave, and it picks us right back up at the exit.
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| a convenience store - halong bay style! this was right outside of the cave we visited. |
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| also right outside of the cave. |
The self-guided cave tour was really cool. We all just sort of wandered through this ginormous cave together, along with a ton of other tourists – most of whom were European.
The cave was pretty incredible. I have been in a cave before, but not one this massive and wide open.
It is so interesting to look at the different textures of the walls, ceilings, everything.
Erin and I remarked how we now need to watch a Discovery Channel special on how caves are actually formed.
After we had made it through the cave, it was back onto the boat and off to our next destination, which didn’t happen to be far.
The next stop was one of the massive Ha Long Bay rocks complete with 400-some steep steps for us to attempt to climb. There was also a beach surrounding the large rock where some people were playing beach soccer, buying snacks, etc. We didn’t have much time at this stop, so most of us immediately started out climbing the daunting stairs, which never seemed to end.
This was undoubtedly the most labor-intensive climb we’ve encountered on this trip so far, and all of us were completely out of breath once we finally reached the top.
All the heavy breathing and hard work was well worth it though, the view was beautiful.
Once we were all able to take a breather and collect ourselves, it was time to take pictures!
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| NOT a backdrop, i promise. haha :] |
Even though it was a rather frigid day, a few of us bravely decided we needed to take a dip in the bay while we had the opportunity. So it was back down the massive rock, onto the boat to change into our suits, and into the chilly water!
Night was falling at this point, and we had really built the water up in our minds to probably being comparable to an ice bath, but thankfully it turned out to not be bad at all.
We all agreed the waterfall water in Laos was pretty cold (especially when you initially jump in), and the water in Halong Bay was about the same.
We needed to get back on the boat, so we only had time for a quick dip, but that wasn’t a problem – we were just happy to be able to say we went swimming in Vietnam!
After we had all boarded the boat again, we changed for dinner and started a game of hearts.
Dinner was similar to lunch, many more seafood dishes, along with a chicken dish and some vegetables.
Hands down, the best part of the meal (and some may argue the entire trip) was the dessert….GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! Dessert was provided compliments of Pam Carstens, a business professor from Coe visiting over Spring Break.
Between the twelve of us, we split a box of tagalongs (peanut butter patties), shortbread, and thin mints. Yum.
After our delicious dessert, we picked up our game of hearts again. I ended up losing, but we played another game after and I redeemed myself! I ended up winning the second time, and somehow shot the moon during the very first hand of the second game.
It was midnight by the time we finished our second game of hearts and everyone else had already gone to bed, so we decided to follow suit (no pun intended) as well.
After a full night’s sleep, we woke up for a “late” breakfast at 9am. We had fried eggs, bread with butter and jam, and little slices of ham.
Once we had all eaten, our captain graciously anchored the boat in a section of water that was deep enough for swimming, and most importantly, jumping off the top deck of the boat!
But no worries, it was completely safe. :]
We were all a little nervous at first, especially because we had to step up on a little ledge in order to actually jump into the water below, and wanted to be careful no one slipped and fell.
I somehow ended up being the person ordered to go first, and after collecting my courage, and belting out my lungs on the way down, I plunged into the freezing water below. Even though it was daytime (and we could almost make out the sun behind all of the cloud cover) the water was somehow colder than from our brief swim the night before. The water was also incredibly salty…wow!
We were able to jump and swim for probably about a good thirty to forty-five minutes, and it was so much fun.
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| me jumping! |
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| group jump! :D |
Some of the people with us were able to get some pretty incredibly pictures of us jumping too, which was really neat.
I felt super salty afterwards, but it was definitely worth it.
After our early morning swim, we all met with Drexler to discuss our latest read, The Quiet American.
It was a lot of fun having class on the boat surrounded by the beautiful scenery of Halong Bay.
By the time we finished class, we were nearing shore, which meant the end of our boat ride.
We watched with dreaded anticipation as we neared the dock and all of the other boats loading and unloading passengers.
Once back onshore, we reloaded our 24-passenger van and headed back towards Hanoi.
We spent the rest of the afternoon driving through the Vietnam countryside, stopping at the same major tourist “pit stop” for a bathroom break and lunch.
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| tall, skinny house which is a signature of where we were in vietnam. we saw this particular one on the drive back to hanoi. |
Sunday evening was quiet, as we had a rather eventful and exciting weekend. Halong Bay was definitely worth seeing; I had a wonderful time there!
