We opted for the 3 day/2 night tour. 135USD all transfers, food, activities and lodging.
We used a little boat to transfer to the big boat where we would sleep that night. Everywhere you look are giant rocks shooting up out of the water. All different shapes and sizes.
One of the islands, called Titop, had a pagoda at the top and 400 stairs leading up to it. In the pic I am half way up.
The views were spectacular and the fog added to feeling of awe. This is a shot from the top of Titop.
We passed several floating communities. Most of the people that live here are fisherman or pearl cultivators.
Several of the islands have caves within them. This pic is from the entrance of one of the caves.
Me in the cave!
At the pearl farm we go to see how they cultivated and gathered pearls. Gram, you would be proud, I bought a set of pearl earrings!
Can ya see the pearl in the oyster below?
After the pearl farm we pulled over at one of the floating communities and got to kayak around the area for a while. I had a boat partner from the Ukraine, we weren't real good at kayaking but we managed.
The second day we stopped at Monkey Island and hiked to the top to see the view. Thankfully we didn't see any monkeys as they seem to have a tendency to bite people. I don't want the rabies. Haha, I actually picked up a handful of rocks just a precaution against charging monkeys. I have already had a baboon chase me...that's really all I need.
This is from the top of monkey island.
The boat then dropped us off on Cat Ba Island. From here we had to bike 5km to our bungalows for the night.
Here, Alene makes biking look adventurous and fun.
My bungalow for the night.
We also hiked to the highest point near our bungalow village. It was a rocky steep climb but worth every drop of sweat.
We hiked this with two of our newest friends from the boat, Axel and Gordon.
Sheesh....pictures just don't look like the real thing.
All the meals where served family style. We had calamari, squid, fish, rice, cabbage, lemongrass squid sticks, chicken and so much more yummy stuff with every meal.
That night we returned to Hanoi around 4:30. It's Christmas Eve! The hotel staff were very merry! They had drinks out for all the guest to say Merry Christmas and they invited us out with them to karaoke at place where they had rented our a room to karaoke.
We went out for a nice Christmas dinner. Check out my new necklace from Alene and my mostly devoured Christmas dinner. Pho and spring rolls!
We joined the hostel staff for some karaoke. Karaoke here is very different from home. Here you rent out a room for you and all your singing friends and you get to pick all your own songs and you don't have to wait for other folks or listen to their awful singing...you just get to listen to your friends awful singing. It was quite fun and funny to see this karaoke. They were all super into the singing and they all got up to dance along with the singing. And they were all VERY welcoming. This isn't even one of their holidays and they sure did their best to make it fun.
What I have learned:
I am going to have the opportunity to perfect my chopstick skills. I have only been given a fork with my meal very few times.
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