The trip began with a boat trip around the bay, on a boat much like the one shown here. This geology is very typical of the bay, which contains some 3000 islands made of limestone karsts. Note that this particular island has a small tower at the top, where we hiked in order to see a commanding view of the bay and many islands. This picture also barely shows the edge of a sand beach (look between the boat and the floating structure it's moored to), where we spent some time swimming. Katherine stayed relatively close to shore, because she was afraid of jellyfish; this fear was completely justified, as I discovered on an ill-conceived swim with Gwynne out to the buoys that marked the edge of the swimming area. Near the buoy, I encountered (though never saw) a jellyfish, which stung me on my arm and foot. As Wikipedia notes, "... jellyfish stings are known to be extremely painful," which I can now corroborate. Another triumph of Web 2.0!
On the second day, after enjoying a lovely sunset, a fascinating lightning storm, and a rejuvenating night's sleep on the boat, we spent the bulk of the day kayaking around some of the islands. We began by exploring a "floating village," a collection of boats semi-permanently moored to an island and to one another. These villages feature most of the comforts of home, including power, garbage collection, and even cell phone reception; the largest floating village we saw had nearly two thousand residents! This village, in addition to the myriad of fishing vessels and homes, also had a school and a pub, with a pool table -- I think that playing pool in a floating village would pose a particular challenge.
My favorite part of kayaking, though -- in fact, my goal for the trip, which I articulated to the ladies before we set off -- was paddling through natural tunnels in the limestone into lagoons among the karsts. In this picture, Katherine and I are emerging from the first of three tunnels that took us to an incredibly beautiful pool far from the shore of this island. The third tunnel was so small and well-hidden that I doubt we would have found it without our guide.
After a long day of kayaking (and a refreshing swim off the boat, preceded by a careful check for jellyfish), we were ready to relax at our amazing resort on Cat Ba, the largest island in Halong Bay. This is the view from the beach bar at the resort, which we enjoyed while sipping tropical drinks in between dips in the pool. Gwynne suggested that we swim out to this island, but I had learned my lesson.
Our excellent guide Thuan joined us for a six-course Vietnamese dinner that evening, and we decided to take advantage of the resort's karaoke room afterwards. Thuan's English while singing bad 80's music was even better than it was while describing the geology of Halong Bay or the nuances of Vietnamese cultural history. My duet with him of "Hello" by Lionel Richie was unforgettable; I also really enjoyed our group rendition of "Under the Sea."
On the last day, I had a terrifying moto ride to a national park on Cat Ba island, to take a 3 km hike up to the highest point on the island. The ladies remained at the resort, getting massages and/or lounging on the beach. The hike was challenging but short, and the view at the top was a spectacular array of row after row of these limestone karsts marching out to the ocean in the dim distance.After one last dip in the ocean, we left Cat Ba and Halong Bay to head back up to Hanoi. We had a few more adventures on our complicated routes back home (for me, Hanoi to Bangkok to Taipei to San Francisco to Denver to St. Louis to, hopefully, Indianapolis and then Rochester), which I'll detail in my final blog post sometime in the next few days.
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