Ha Long Bay

Friday morning began early in Hanoi. Up at 6:30 am, another delicious fresh breakfast, then on the bus and on we go. Our destination is Ha Long Bay. It is about 110 miles away, but will take us some four hours to travel, partly because of the heavy Hanoi traffic, the bad roads, the 45 mile per hour speed limit, and the many small towns we pass through.


As we travel, we pass many rice paddies...some have individuals out working in the mud to tend their crops. We were told that the average farm in the north produces two rice crops per year, as compared to three crops per year in the south. No machinery, just manual labor, or an occasional water buffalo.

Hours later we arrive at Ha Long City. We leave our bus and board a small boat for our lunch cruise. Off we go into the bay, but our first order of business is lunch. The fare is traditional Vietnamese... Rice with fish, rice with beef, rice with chicken, rice with rice! The lunch is delicious.



We travel deeper into Ha Long Bay, an area of about 1,000 square miles with approximately 2,000 small islands, many of which are just rocks jutting up out of the water. We are told that between 7,000-9,000 people live here either on boats or small floating villages. Some of them never leave the water... They spend their entire lives here, having food and supplies delivered to them from the mainland.


We stop at one of the floating villages so some of the guys can kayak in and around the rocks and small islands. After they are done we travel farther into the bay until we arrive at an island with several caves. We spend the next few hours cave exploring, wearing ourselves out as we slug up and down stone steps and stairs.






Finally, we board our boat and head back to the shore. We arrive back in Ha Long City, and check into our hotel, which is just across the street from the beach. For supper, we found an Italian restaurant just down the street, where we had our fill of pasta, brad sticks, and pizza!

After supper, everyone is worn out. Back to our hotel and most are in bed by 9:30 pm, but it was an enlightening day. Tomorrow, it's back on the bus for a return trip to Hanoi, board a plane and a short flight to DaNang where we will finally meet with the pastors and pick up our motorbikes.