Life Eaters

Days 4

Halong bay – day 1
We were picked up from our hotel at 8am for a four hour van ride to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a world heritage site where 3000+ limestone rock islands jut up out of the water, offering boats an amazing place to cruise.

Halfway through our drive our “bathroom stop” was at a place that would be described as an art factory. Dozens of children used their tiny fingers to sew, paint, sculpt and stitch hundreds of pieced of art. I would say it was sweat shop like, except that I believe the conditions were very good and I think this was a very special job for these kids. I guess you would need to talk to them yourself to find out for sure.

We arrived in Halong Bay and were shown to our boat, which was amazing beyond words. It was the style of a traditional Vietnamese junk boat. Our rooms were enormous, and we were sharing the boat only with an older Indian couple, Mr. and Mrs. Joshi, and our crew of seven.

Our closest and favorite crew member was our guide, who went by the name Ha. Ha was really kind and great and amazing and we loved hanging out with him and learning about the area and about the vietnamese people.

Our Boat’s chef did magical things with food, and we never had a hungry moment, starting with the 6 course lunch when we boarded the boat to the barbecue on the beach.

At the area where we anchored for the night Ha guided us on a kayak paddle around some islands, where we got to paddle into caves.