Halong Bay 7/11-7/12

Sunday

Got my wakeup call and got ready for Halong Bay. The bus came and picked me up where I met a nice young couple and an older canadian couple. The ride was about 3 and half hours. Got to the bay around 12. Boarded the ship by tender, where unfortunately my sunblock exploded everywhere. Luckily it was in a plastic bag so nothing was damaged. Arrived at the boat and it was beautiful as well as the room. Started the cruise with some watermelon juice. Then we had lunch, which was about 6 courses. Very good. Then we got to relax a little before we disembarked for the floating village.
Kayaked around the floating village, saw how they lived and witnessed their school for little kids. Crazy to live on the water. They are also knwong for their pearls, so got to see the process of how pearls are made. Left the village and kayaked back to the tender to take us back to the boat. Back at the boat we were allowed to swim in the water whcih was too warm for me with a strong current. So i decided to take a cold shower. Very refreshing/
After that relaxed up on the sundeck to watch the sunset with a glass of wine. Very relaxing and beautiful. Words nor pictures can really capture how amazing this place really was. 1,000;s of limestonde rocks everywhere.
After the sun had set we went down to make some spring rolls. Pretty fun and very tasty. Thus after that had dinner, which again was an abundance of food. Dinner, finished then tried some squid fishing which was only fun for about 20 minutes. My 5 dollar watch broke in the water so I didnt know what time it was ever. I had to keep asking or calling the front desk to ask the time. Wanted to wake up for the world cup and was supposed to receive a wake up call but never did. Luckily I woke up at 1:45 just as the first half was ending. Got to watch the world cup in the bay, prettty awesome.
4 am went to bed, to then wake up at 6am for some thai chi. Pretty funny and relaxing. Our last little exercise was a train massge. Then breakfast was served.
After that, we got back on the tender to go witness a cave, which was absolutely stunning. Had never been in a cave that big.
After the cave came back to the boat took a shower checked out of the room and then had to wait for an hour for lunch. This lunch was a downgrade from our first 3 meals. Got off the boat around 12 and then headed back to Hanoi.

Got back to my hotel around 4. Confirmed my train ridew to sapa tonight. Then went to find a cheap watch and some food.

Off to Sapa for 4 days!