Halong Bay near Hanoi

It literally means "descending dragon bay" and is a UNESCO World Heritage.

It took about 3 hr bus ride from Hanoi to the Bay. The 1st thing I did after jumpping on the bus was to greet the tour guide and asked for the seat with the best view for the Bay. He yielded his seat to me but i soon realized that the seat was on the sunny side of the bus and has no curtain on the window. Half side of my body was baked for 3 hrs.

I could barely understood my tour guide's English and was disappointed by the shitty look of our boat which was quite different from the one shown by travel agent. Worst of all, the toilet on the boat had no running water. I felt relieved that there is running water for shower in the rooms.

The Bay was peaceful and gorgeous among thousands of limestone islands. We visited floating villages, one cave, kayaked, swam in the Bay, had dinner, and then slept on the boat.

Locals have been living in these floating houses for many generations as fishing is still the villagers' main income. Some communities offer home stay and on-board chef for fresh seafood.

I teamed up with an Australian gentleman to race with his two grown up sons to see which kayak passed via a hole in an island featured on a Vietnamese bill. The water was warm and comfortable to swim in. I was not sure about the depth of the ocean so I swam with an lifejack on. Some people jumped and dived from the boat.

The evening on the top deck was relaxing, tranquil and beautiful. I felt almost like a fetus in a womb.

I was tempted to stay one more day to hike in the national park on the Cat Ba Island, but I has arranged a dinner with a friend in Hanoi on the second day.

I woke up 5 am to wait for the sunrise. It was foggy but I saw the oringe sun rising above the peaks of an island and took a few photos. I lay on the chair on the top deck to read after breakfast and then retreated to the seating area when the sun got hot.

I later learned from one fellow passenger that the hike was just 1 hr long to a peak of an island and the hikers were left to wonder around on their own on the small area. Based upon the photos, I did not miss anything worth while on the hiking trip I failed to take.