Minibus from Koto Hostel to Halong Bay. One stop. Then the boat.
Today we had to leave our wonderful Koto Hostel. The minibus grabbed us in the morning and whisked us off to Halong City. We made one stop at an interesting place. It was a shop/store/factory for disabled Vietnamese people. In this place, the disabled were making all sorts of arts and crafts. There was silk visual artwork. I don't know what else to call it. It was beautiful! They were making pictures out of stitched silk. It looked entirely time consuming and, from a distance, you couldn't tell that it was made from tiny threads of silk. There was a marble exhibit area as well. Outside there were people with saws and chisels making the most spectacular items from stone. This was supposed to just be a stop along the road. I had never seen anything like this before.
We bought some postcards and right next to them was rice SNAKE WINE. All caps for good reason. I saw a jar with a cobra snake inside with a scorpion in its mouth. What?!? The jar was almost 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The cobra must have been 4" in diameter. The wine was a yellow brown color and looked delectable! They had a shipping chart posted huge outside for ship freight to anywhere in the world. I was thinking a huge marble sculpture and snake wine shipped to the USA. Katherine did not go for this at all. I must try different tactics. A jar of snake wine would look great in the house and a marble sculpture in the backyard would be a nice touch.
The road to Halong City was bumpy to say the least. Our minibus driver had a death wish for sure. The horn honking here is a little overboard. He would honk anytime he came up on other vehicle and then overtake them with or without traffic coming our way. If an oncoming vehicle was overtaking another and was not out of the way before they approached us, our driver would swerve at him just to taunt. Nice. Our lives are in your hands. This is NOT the way I want to die. I can think of many more fun ways to go.
We then arrived at the Halong marina. Here a mini tender motored us out to the big boat. Once we arrived on our white hotel on the water, we knew it would be a great time. Technically, this would be our first cruise ever, and what a place to do it. The room is clean, modern, and everything works. Even the AC. I can do this.
Our boat, named Opera, motored out at a slower than slow pace to one of the floating village in Halong Bay. The floating village is made up of connected rafts that are shielded in a bay from the reach of high surf. They are all fishermen, and the women sell items to the tourists. From here, we took out kayaks to explore the legendary limestone cliffs.
The cliffs are extremely dramatic. They jut out of the water at a 90 degree angle and must be up to 500 feet high. Not sure, but I should check. The jungle grows out of every place it can find a hold. Birds were flying above looking for food and the water was a calm, flat, green. It is so hot and the water does not get flushed out often, so the algae bloom is quite impressive. There is no way you can see to the bottom.
After kayaking, we went to a sand beach area that is hard to find. Beaches are few and scarce since the area is mostly steep cliffs. The beach had tons of people on it, so we opted to take a hike to the summit of the mountain. Up there we could see all the way to the mainland and witness the spectacle of hotel boats in the area. The hike was hot and I was amazed at how much my body could sweat.
From there, it was back to the boat. The tender took us to the mother ship for an amazing dinner. We retired early to get some blog work done and had a wonderful nights rest. Sleeping on a boat is kind of fun. My retirement plan is being made.
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