Be prepared for a photo full blog post. For those who love it, you're welcome, those who don't want to see 45 pictures of my weekend may want to skip this post!
Finally, many many things to take pictures of . . . although my camera wasn't working well on Day 1 and my family didn't want to stop as many times as I did to take pictures, I think I found plenty to post anyway!
I booked a 3 day/2 night trip via Private Asia Tours, who were very nice to work with me and my budget. It was nice to have everything taken care of before we left, and I didn't have to do all the leg work. On Wednesday morning we checked out, leaving some of our luggage at the hotel, and rode in a bus for 3.5 hours to Halong City. Along with my family, there was a couple from New Zealand who also booked the 2 night trip. The 6 of us had a wonderful guide, Thong Ha, who took care of us the whole time. (There were also people on the boat on a 1 night trip with a different guide.)
We boarded the Halong Pheonix Cruiser, a beautiful wooden boat, and as the only vegetarians, were given enough delicious food to feed an entire table of adults.
During lunch the boat was venturing closer to our first stop, The Amazing Cave. Which had amazing views from the top.
It is a giant cave with beautiful stalactites, some resembling animals. The cave was found by the French but there is writing inside of early Chinese characters so there must of been many who found it before.
It was a bit touristy.
Although Thong did his best to keep us entertained with stories about the caves, we spent lots of time trying to keep the kids occupied.
And reading funny signs.
Nice family photo at the end though.
Next stop was a floating village for some kayaking. Well, Don and Makoa kayaked.
Tas and I hung out at the village for 45 minutes. People hanging out without kids hardly got any attention. We on the other hand hung out with this woman for half of the time.
And playing with the other toddlers the rest!
Can you imagine raising kids on a floating village? I would be so nervous all of the time. After spending some time there I noticed that the kids were always held on the outside platforms, and were only allowed down inside the houses. There are lots of women around watching the kids too. I saw our toddler friend being carried around by her father who set her down for less than a minute before her mother hollered at the dad, I am sure scolding him to pick the baby up. Another case of not needing to know the language to understand what was being said!
Dinner was served and I ate as much as I could to not appear rude. It was all delicious, but I counted 10 dishes being served and our tummies were bursting. We are used to being able to choose from 1-2 things, not having 10 plates to consume! They definitely did not want to leave anyone hungry. In the morning we were treated to magical views from our windows.
Then after breakfast we boarded a smaller boat for a 2 hour trip to Cat Ba island. The ride was amazing. The mountains were covered in mist and it was so quiet as there was just the 6 of us, plus our tour guide and 2 crew. Things seemed to emerge from the mist ahead and the colors were breathtaking.
We were able to go outside and upstairs, but were warm and cozy inside to play silly face games too.
No longer in Halong Bay we had to register at the Cat Ba National Park ranger station.
Once on the island we stopped at Fort Cannon before heading to our hotel.
We arrived at the Cat Ba Eco Lodge, and were again fed til our stomachs could take no more! Then Don went mountain biking while Tasi napped and Makoa and I played quiet games.
We hiked before dinner and enjoyed being in a beautiful place that was quiet and out of the city.
The next morning I took a cooking class and learned how to make spring rolls.
Don't they look pretty? I love that the cook cleaned them up a bit, trimming the edges of rice paper so they look all uniform and professional. They tasted good too!!
The kid's favorite parts of the hotel were the hammock and climbing rock (oh and the urinal in our bathroom!)
We then took a 20 minute bus to the ferry for a 1 hour hydrofoil ride to take a 2 hour bus ride to Hanoi. My family slept most of that time! The best part of the day though was tipping Thong. He was wonderful with the kids (leaving his twin 3 year olds to hang with us) often he was holding Makoa's hand through tunnels and boarding boats, he translated everything, gave us constant information, bought all tickets, helped when there were miscommunications, took care of everything. We were worried about what to tip and consulted with the New Zealand couple who researched on Google! In the end we decided to over tip, as the money was going directly to our new friend, and probably would go a lot further for him than would for us in Australia or the US. I turned back to look at Thong through the window counting his 1 million dong ($44), practically jumping out of his seat and smack his driver friend, then to look back at us with a giant grin and wave. I hope he is able to go home happy after a tiring trip and maybe get something special for his family. He made our trip and it sure made our day to leave him happy!
Budget:
Cost of trip (2 night accommodation, meals, entrance fees, transport) - $473
Extra food/snacks/drinks - $47
Tip - $44
Accommodation on Friday - $124
Food/groceries when we got back - $43
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