Day 12: Halong Bay “I don’t know if I can eat anymore!”

Kavita got up bright and early to run around the lake nearby, Hoan Kiem. She tells me that there were tons of people up and at ‘em at 6 am: running, playing badminton, starting work, honking, doing tai chi, etc. The sun is up, so I guess the Vietnamese just figure the day has started. One man gestured for her to play badminton with her feet, a skill in which she has not been trained. After a couple sad attempts, he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Oh. Didn’t think you’d be that bad.”
We had a 3 ½ hr bus ride (during which we saw many a rice paddy and an entire dead cow being transported on the back of a motorcycle) to Halong Bay, a gorgeous area with tons of limestone cliffs/islands jutting out of the water. We had a really good lunch with 7 small courses once on board. The rooms are actually pretty large, and since this is such a romantic vacation, the rose petals on each bed were just lovely. Not sure what the intentions are when both beds are twins though… We splurged a bit on this excursion, and $85/person buys you some good digs around here. We had to split up since the triple was taken. Boston gets to sleep by himself for once! After lunch, they took us on a long cave tour that we actually got out and walked around in. It was a pleasant change from outside the temperature and humidity. As you can see in the pics, we were feeling the weather.
After reading on the roof top deck for a few hours, we were supposed to go swimming. We had this great cove all to ourselves – super quiet. However, the giant jellyfish with 2m long tentacles changed my mind. Been there-done that: Spring Break ’93 (seriously)!! After a while we didn’t see any more, so a bunch of the guys decided to jump in. I was still wary and opted against it. The rest of the evening we just read and relaxed. (I realize how shocking this is.) Then they served us another 7 course meal including a pineapple jack o’lantern that had spring rolls coming off the sides -so fancy! After dinner we played Phase 10 (shout-out, Mel!) on the roof deck until we started falling asleep. All in all a gloriously unproductive, lazy day, and boy, did we need it!

Click here for more Halong Bay pics