In the lobby of Robin and Erika’s hotel, we met Dat for the first time. He came rushing into the lobby all full of energy and excitement. I guess it’s good for tour guides to have all that energy. He was this small Vietnamese man, with wide-set eyes and a very happy smile. Right away he asked us if we were the ones who would be kayaking with him the next day, and Robin said yes. I was a little worried, Kyle and I knew they offered the kayaking with our package, but we hadn’t decided on that yet. But I guess we were going too. I was just a little nervous since I have never kayaked before.
The bus ride was uneventful. There were a lot of middle-aged couples that were talking about how they only stay in 5 star hotels. A man from Iowa, who now lives in Australia, talked the entire 3 hours. Poor Robin was stuck sitting next to him. And there was this very short woman who was covered in bumps, she as also from Australia. There was also a family with two small children, I didn’t even think about requesting a childfree cruise until I saw them get on, oh no!
When we arrived at the port, Kyle and Robin went to buy some booze so we weren’t stuck paying too much for the booze on the boat. We were the last people to board the little boat to the bigger boat, which became a pattern, everyone always seemed to be waiting for the four of us. When we got to the boat, we all sat in the dining area to hear about our trip, and the itinerary for the day. We got settled into our little cabin which had two twin beds that we had to push together. Then we had lunch. At this point we were still docked with several other boats a little ways from shore. Lunch was ok, lots and lots of fried food, and fish. We sat at a table for 6, with Robin and Erika and two men from Australia, who were very handsome and muscular in their little white wife-beaters. We think they were a couple but we are still not quite sure. The older of the two resembled David Beckham.
After lunch we sailed out into the bay. The junk boat that we were on, was three stories, and very nice. All pretty wood walls and walkways, and the staff was friendly. We took the smaller boat out to a large cave, which we got to walk through. It was massive compared to the cave we had been in Cambodia. Every time that we thought we had reached the end of the cave it just went in deeper. It was very beautiful to see even for the fact that they used cheesy colored lighting to highlight the most beautiful parts for dramatic effect. Funny enough though, at one point we walked through a small cavern to get to another larger part of the cave to discover another interesting part of the cave highlighted by cheesy lighting. In fact this seemed like one rock formation that everyone was interested in taking photos of. The formation looked like a huge erection that everyone thought was sooo funny. Of course it was. It certainly was something you would expect to see.
After the cave tour, we went Kayaking as a big group for about an hour. This was a lot of fun. Angy started to get the hang of the paddling and the understanding of the stability of the boat. We were able to kayak through this beautiful cave into a cove of these mountainous islands. It was gorgeous. Then it was back to the big boat for some swimming and to get ready for dinner. Kyle jumped in several times off the second floor of the boat and did a few back flips off the first level. I went in for a little bit, but then a woman got stung by a jelly fish so I decided to get out. (Kyle) As Angy was swimming towards the ladder to get back on the boat, I jumped off the second story into the water. She didn’t notice that I hadn’t come up yet because she just wanted to get out of the water. As soon as I went under I swam towards her little legs. I initially was going to play with her little toes to freak her out, but I decided instead to surface right in front of her. (Angy) He scared the crap out of me and I screamed, which probably worried everyone else in the water. Kyle thought this was hilarious.
We showered and sat up on the top level watching the last bit of daylight dwindle, and then we went down to dinner. Kyle and I ended up sitting at a different table for dinner, we sat with a family of four from Slovenia, husband and wife with their two older daughters. They were traveling with another family from Slovenia that they usually travel with. Kyle and I liked this method of travel and later talked to Robin and Erika about the possibility of traveling with them again in the future. Dinner was a many course affair. With egg soup, cucumber salad, steamed clams, a type of crab cake that was served in the crab shell body, fried fish, a chicken dish, a beef dish, rice, steamed cabbage, and other stuff that I can’t remember. Kyle and I shared a bottle of red wine. After dinner we went up to the top level to sit and relax, and talked with a fascinating couple from New Zealand who have traveled the world extensively. I love hearing other peoples travel stories. At this point Robin and Erika, and our two Aussie boys came to get us for Karaoke. Kyle and I went down to our room to refresh his drink, and I decided to lie down since I wasn’t feeling well. I was planning on resting for a few minutes and then head up to the party, but then I was feeling worse. I think I ate something bad, and I threw up several times, and had the runs, sorry for too much information, but I was miserable. We couldn’t figure out how to get the air-con to work in our room, so not only was I sick but I was hot as well! Kyle will have to fill you in on his part of the night, as I didn’t emerge until breakfast the next morning. I only heard muffled karaoke songs from upstairs.
So after I made sure that there was nothing else that Angy needed I went back upstairs. Oh, I though I had the Air Con working because I got the fan started and it was blowing out cooler air but apparently that wasn’t the trick. Anyways, I went upstairs and the staff was singing karaoke, and it sounded great. It was so amusing to listen to them sing with their accents. As far as the guests on the boat went I believe that Erika started off the Karaoke night. I must say that she embodies what karaoke is really about. She doesn’t necessarily have the greatest voice (which she knows) but she really enjoys herself and gets everybody else having a good time. I believe she helped people relax a little more. It was a lot of fun, many songs were sung.
There was a couple from New Zealand there and the husband is the lead singer of a band that does gigs all over. Well, I must say that I am not too sure how well his band does because he did not sound too good, but oddly enough there was two older ladies behind me who I over heard saying how talented a singer he was. I actually turned around to see if they were joking or not. They weren’t joking and I didn’t get it. The boys from Australia were having a lot of fun. They were suggesting many good songs for everyone to sing but were not actually singing themselves. They were being good cheerleaders though. So that kind of made up for there singing participation. Eventually it was time to cut everybody off. They shut off the Karaoke and Robin, Erika, and I went upstairs to take in the last few moments of the night before bed. It was very nice out that evening. Even though there were many other boats like ours in the bay that evening, there were not too many around us, which was nice.
We then headed off for bed and I went to check on Angy for the fifth or sixth time and the air con was still not pumping out very well. So I went and found a crew member who spoke no English but apparently knows body language well enough to understand what I was trying to get across. He came down to the room and deciphered our Chinese air conditioner and got it working. Very nice. Now we were able to get some good rest.
