Halong Bay and Back to Hanoi

I had a fairly pleasant sleep on the boat last night, but Brad was awake at 3 am. I will say that it got quite bright early on, but we had to be up for breakfast at 7 anyway.

Breakfast was a simple toast and eggs so that we could eat quickly and then get on the small boat to head out to the caves. After a short ride, we got to the island and started climbing the stairs to enter the first cave. If I had just seen the first cave, I would have thought it was well worth it. However, there were four or five more caves after that - each slightly more expanse and impressive than the last! The stalactites and stalagmites were numerous and the ceiling of the cave had been shaped by the sea water to create smooth, curved shapes. It just seemed to go on and on and on!

After about an hour in the caves, we boarded the boat again to return to our main craft. We had to get packed up and “check out” of our rooms before brunch was served at 10:30. Brunch consisted of fried squid, pork curry, fish in pomegranate sauce, shrimp in tamarind, jicama salad, and vegetable noodle dish followed by dragon fruit for dessert. It’s been more challenging to take food pictures as food comes sporadically and the expectation is that you eat as soon as it arrives (there’s no waiting for everyone’s food to arrive). Anyway, it was absolutely delicious!

Our small boat came and picked us up to take us back to port where we boarded our bus and headed back to Hanoi.

We are currently waiting for our street food tour to begin, so perhaps I’ll end this entry and start a new one for the latter half of our day!Read more