Halong Bay - Vietnam

One of the "must see's" in Vietnam is Halong Bay. This bay consists of over 3,000 limestone islands covered in vegetation. Some of these islands house small fishing villages, while others have caves to explore. and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

You can take a day trip boat through part of the bay or choose to stay overnight on one of the "Junks".  You have the option to stay multiple nights, seeing more of the bay, however we opted to stay one night considering we were short on time and between us and the Klepfer family we had 5 children to entertain.

Unfortunately there was alot of fog coming off the water while we were there, but the views and trip was still breathtaking. I can only imagine what it looks like during a clear time.

It took us 3.5 hours to get to Halong Bay from Hanoi via a shuttle bus. While the drive was long, it was interesting to drive through some of the "countryside" of Vietnam. Part way through we stopped at a rest area to grab snacks, drinks and for a bathroom break.

One we arrived at the port we had to board a hopper boat to our "Junk". The kids were excited to be going on a "cruise" for 2 days.

We arrived at our "Junk" (I have no idea why they call the boats this) and got checked into our cabins. The Junk was awesome and the rooms were quite spacious.

There was a total of 10 cabins on the Junk. The other "Junkmates" consisted of a couple that barely spoke to anyone, an Asian couple, two guys vacationing solo and two couples who were backpacking across Asia. They turned out to be a very fun group of people.

The afternoon was spent eating lunch, exploring the caves, kayaking, and cruising around the bay looking at all the islands and little villages.

The meals served on the Junk were awesome. The kid enjoyed sitting at their own table eating all the decorative food.

After dinner we cruised around the bay some more and then had a fun night of karaoke. Even Matt joined in the fun!

The next day we cruised around the bay taking in all the sites before returning back to the port and heading back to Hanoi.

You can see many more pictures here.  It was an awesome two days and I highly recommend anyone going to Vietnam to make sure they visit Halong Bay. You won't regret it.

Next up?  China Beach!

Back to Thailand -- James Bond Island

Better late than never, right? I know you (all 5 of my blog readers) have been waiting on abated breath for me to work on some more Thailand entries. So here we go. Our tour of James Bond Island and Phang Nga Bay.

We took a speedboat out from some remote area of Phuket towards Phang Nga Bay. The tour we took to Phi Phi Islands was from this fancy gated community with yachts at the boat docks. The area this tour started from was so remote that the tour and fisherman were the only ones around and it was way out in the middle of no where. Okay I guess we weren't the only ones there. These guys (and about 15 more of their pals) were hanging out too.


As we headed towards the bay our tour guides fed us some awesome tiny bananas, blood oranges (I have never eaten one before) and fresh pineapple. I cannot stress enough how amazing the fruit was over there.

Our boat leaving the docks (and monkeys) behind.

Our ride took off into the middle of the sea and all around us were huge limestone formations, some uncovered and others covered in vegetation. Our first stop was to be at the "bat cave", but thankfully the tide was not at the right spot and we just stayed in the boat. I really was not looking forward to walking through a cave where Thailand bats lived.
Bat cave that you can actually walk through.

After we left the bat cave we headed towards Koh Hong. Here we were to unload onto a big boat stationed in the middle of the sea and get onto tiny sea kayaks.

I have to admit I was a bit freaked. Getting on a tiny kayak in the middle of the sea in Thailand, with who knows what living in the water, was a tad bit unnerving. They gave us a person to paddle and lead us so it really was pretty safe. We took this kayak into "hongs" (caves), through little paths in the water trees and into different rock openings.
Trees along our path in the kayak.

One hong opening was so small that you literally had to lay down flat in your kayak to get inside.
Us getting ready to go through the opening to get inside the rock formation. You can see the couple in front of us laying back to get inside.

Our paddle guy was camera happy. (As you will see with the many pictures of Matt and I on the kayak) But I have to say some of them turned out pretty good.
After we got back on our speedboat they took us to Koh Pannyi, a tiny Muslim fisherman village to eat lunch. The whole village is built on stilts over the water.


When we arrived at the restaurant the meal was already set out on the table. For a person who doesn't eat anything that isn't land bearing it was a bit of an eyeopener.
There was a dish of white rice (which I ate alot of), cooked fresh vegetables (which I also ate alot of), some mystery chicken plate, two whole fish (head and eyes included), some mystery egg dish and soup.

Matt's bowl of soup and yes he ate all of it. (Like the tentacles?)

Outside the restaurant we were able to walk around the docks. There even was a man taking pictures (for a fee of course) with a giant bird. We opted to not be clawed and just took pictures ourselves of the scenery.

After lunch we went to James Bond Island. Ko Tapu or Nail Island, found fame through the 1974 Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun", hence the name James Bond Island.
Matt and I at the top of the stairs on James Bond Island. The upside down rock behind us is a famous landmark.

This was probably one of Matt's favorite places of our whole trip. Not because of the movie (which you would never had known they filmed there if it wasn't for a small sign in at a promotional products gift table selling old copies of the movie) but because of the amazing limestone rocks and caves.


After I managed to drag Matt away from the caves we went back up the stone steps (not something easy when not wearing shoes) we went to a private island to soak up some rays. The tour guide was funny telling us that if we went anywhere past the boat or into the jungle that we would probably not make it back without seeing some sea urchin or deadly snake. Needless to say I just stayed on the sand.
After a very long day we went back to the boat dock where once again we were greeted by these little guys.

As always I have many more pictures from this part of our trip posted here. Matt got a bit carried away with the pictures of the limestones.

Up next? Patong Beach, Phuket and the nightlife.