Natural Drift w/ Tyde

The name of Halong Bay meaning is also linked to a Vietnamese legend, which tells the story of dragons descending from the heavens to help Vietnamese people fight foreign invaders and protect their homeland, translating into the desending dragon.
One of the natural seven wonders of the world , a minecraft for any well trained skipper and a must-see. Well, at least it was for me.

The day started early. We had gotten up, packed our bags, and sat down for breakfast. Before we could eat, a man approached us, asking if we were going to Ha Long Bay. I confirmed as I had booked buggy and I on a 2 day 1 night trip. He told me he was here to pick us up, a whole hour and a half before the agreed pick-up time. After showing him the confirmation text and him still insisting it was time to leave, I decided that this was not one of my battles. Packed up the bit of toast I had cooked and saved some sweet potato and corn for Tyde for later. Oh well, Argh.

We were first on the bus, going round the city for over an hour, picking up the people for the tour. Abouut 845, we were off. Travelling nearly 200km to the east coast of Vietnam , we had quite the trek ahead of us. Tyde crashed for nap around 915 and was woken at 945 with an announcement of a coffee and bathroom stop. **sigh**

When we were at the stop, I let tyde crawl around to stretch his legs before going back in. I always have sanitation wipes and new clothes tucked away in the bag for these instances. People weren't afraid to comment on my style of mothering, let alone, look me up and down in slight disgust. Of course, I wouldn't let Tyde crawl and roll around in dire places, but I understand his need for movement and exploration and try and meet him somewhere in the middle. I let him stretch and move wherever possible. I never push him and support his own pace, but in regards to these instances, i am eager for him to walk. To them, I kindly responded, "it's like trying to stop a butterfly from flying." You can't unless you clip its wings.

The terrain started to change, and you could see all the beautiful rocky outcrops and islands as we started to get near. 5 hours on the bus, and buggy was getting restless, which was totally understandable, and I was eager to just get there at this point.

Upon arrival, we were collected by our tour guide, who was also called Alex. He spoke great English, and it was obvious this wasn't his first rodeo.

We were ushered on to a small auxiliary vessel and then transported to the main boat. They wanted to do a meet and greet straight away and start serving lunch. I needed to take a few moments to sort baby out wish some fresh clothes and clean nappy, but then we tucked in, and enjoyed a multi course lunch of all sorts of things. Chicken soup, rice, Crumbed fish, beef stroganoff, salad, pork .. i thought i was weird. We were devouring every animal at lunch, but we picked through the options we wanted to eat and claimed we were too full for the rest. Tyde sat in the high chair! Yipeee.

Did the climb to Sung Sot cave, where we got to marvel and this beautiful 6,000,000 million year old cave, that was discovered by french explorers in 1901 and is known to be the biggest most visited cave in Halong.

After that, the smaller auxiliary vessels took us all to Tip Top island, where we had the option to climb the mountain for the view or bask in the chaotic, but beautiful ambience the beach had to offer. I opted to stay on the beach. The climb was step, and hand holes are needed at points for the climb. Baby had just fallen asleep. The weather was overcast, grey and heavily obstructed the view. I thought when in Rome, but actually, I was happy to miss out.

It was packed with people and everywhere you walked was crowed. Tyde must have been tired as he was napping at this point. Much needed i think.

A bitter sweet experience, gazing upon the incredibly beautiful islands and outcrops but then being surrounded by the chaotic over tourism that dominated the energetic charge of this wonderland. Was hard to really take it all in and appreciate the beauty. Everyone scrambling all around getting photos, the boats lining the island as if the foreshore was a parking lot in a busy place. The auxiliary vessels from all the boats scambling to and from to pick up and drop off their guests, boats vying for any free space to park up. I am one of those tourists, complaining about the over tourism. Ha!

I had to take a step back and see the small things. The multicultural football game is going on, where the teams were made up of different players from all over the world. I enjoyed listening to the different languages and dialogues that surrounded us as we walked, and I took joy in thinking about all the people that have worked hard to see this place and finally made it here. It was that beautiful. I could understand why it was so crowded, I guess.

Tydes woken up. We still had 20 minutes on the beach. I let him crawl around and go for it. He couldn't get very far. People from different nationalities swarm in to catch a glimpse of Tyde covered in sand and on lookers peer from higher heights, starring at him paddling in the shallows. It's like he is a celebrity. A few weeks in now, I'm starting to get triggered. Tyde is handling it better than me. He always declines the pick ups but entertains and makes people smile with his cute facials, big smiles, and vocal expressions.

We all head back the main boat where I take the opportunity to relax and get sorted. Tyde explores our room, whilst I get our things out for the night.

The boat runs on a tight schedule. What has to happen when coordinating so many people. We went upstairs where tyde let loose exploring the boat and mastering his recent skills of going down the stairs. We were mingling all around the boat until it was time for dinner.

Dinner was late for us. Started slowly at 7, and the main courses weren't coming out till about 730ish. Big day for Tyde. He was starting to lose it again, and the food for dinner was all this seafood. None of it was suitable for the baby, and quite frankly, it wasn't my thing either. I decided to discretly excuse us and call it before all the food had come out. Time to put Tyde to bed. He's done so well today.Read more