Hanoi II – Halong Bay

Dear Class,

This is Halong Bay in the early hours of the morning. Let me fill in on why we are here. A few days before we came to Vietnam we chose a boat that we would tour Halong Bay in and spend the night on. 

 

We had two choices. The first one was your classic neon cruse ship with 101 rooms. The second was an old Vietnamese junk. You could probably figure out which one I chose if you thought hard enough but since you're half way around the world I will spare you the effort. For old time sake I chose the old one.  

To get to the boat we took a smaller boat to spare the danger of sand bars.

Here is our boat the Red Dragon.

Check out our uber huge room with a bathroom and a shower (batteries not included) ((do a barrel roll)).

After lunch I thought that I would chill out on the sundeck.

Here is your basic formation of rocks. There is a story on how these were made scientifically and fictionally. Scientifically they were formed by the clashing of our infamous Tectonic plates and some erosion here and there. It only took like 20 million years. Fictionally there was a dragon up in the mountains and one day it got homesick and ran down the mountain to the sea and its tail smashed rocks out of the mountain and they landed in the bay as these beautiful cliffs.

Oh hi just workin' on my tan.

After about an hour and 57 minutes we arrived at the island we would tour.

 

Wow great view.

Uber stalactite.

Cave system. Some of the fishing families living in the bay used to live in these caves.

I had to pull mom back to the shore.

Does that island look like a whale? A lot of the islands have names, like elephant or fighting rooster.

Dinner table.

Our chef is also an artist.

Chilin'.

By the light of the silvery mooooon.

I was up in the early hours of the morning water coloring.

 

We shared the boat with two couples. One was from the Netherlands and one was from the U.S. The lady next to the guy sitting on your left reminds me of Jonica.

We went to see a floating village. The people who used to live in caves now live in floating villages.

Uber rock face.

This is your basic floating house.

 About 200 people live in each floating village.

This fishing boat attracts fish at night using light.

They have floating schools too. One room for all the kids in the village. 

 

Ring around the rosey.

Mini junk.

Uber cave.

These are pearl farms.

To make a cultured pearl they cut a piece of an oyster.

They then take the cut out piece and put it in a different oyster along with a pearl seed made out of shell.

Then after a period of two years in the water the oyster yields a beautiful whole pearl.

 

I like painting.

Here is our crew in all their tiny splendor. The bartender was the part time captain :-).

You know I will always remember this boat ride all my life and maybe in death.

Hope you are doing well.

Parker
 

P.S. this letter will not be fully released to the public until the next class letter is sent to me. Any other spectators I apologize for the delay.