I did not sleep very well last night. Once we got the ac working we were then too cold, and the room came with what seemed like a duvet cover without anything inside as the top sheet and blanket. I got up many times in the night to use the toilet in more ways than one. At one point I remember asking Kyle to cuddle me, and he was so drunk he couldn’t figure out how to cross the small gap between our two beds to make it over to me. I just don’t think that he even understood what I was saying since he was half asleep and half passed out.
So in the morning I didn’t think I would be in any condition to go Kayaking for most of the day. Kyle convinced me to go to breakfast and see how I felt after that. Plus the prospect of staying on the boat all day by myself without any ac in the room (they shut off the power and ac from 7:15am to 5:30pm everyday) didn’t sound like fun.
Breakfast consisted of fried eggs that were kind of like an omelet, micowaved bread, bananas, and some cucumbers and tomatoes. As you can see we were not very impressed with the food on the boat. I just had a piece of bread and a banana. I was feeling a little better and thought I might be able to make it for the kayaking. It was so cute when Kyle and I were talking about the day, and I was telling him I would not be able to go, he said “so would we just stay on the boat the whole day?” and I said “no you can go, and then tell me all about it” I just thought it was so cute that he would have stayed with me all day!
So we talked to Dat about the plan for the day, and he said that a boat would be following us, we would have lunch on the boat and I could always go on the boat if the kayaking was too much for me. He assured me that I would be ok. So I rallied up, and got my swimsuit on and packed up what we would need for the day. Then Erika, Robin, Kyle and I boarded the small boat that would take us to the kayaks. Robin and Erika were also very supportive and also very happy to hear that I was going to try to tag along.
Dat introduced us to Lamb who would be our chef for lunch. We noticed the small boat had a WC (Water Closet), which most bathrooms are called here in Vietnam. Kyle double checked with Dat that the boat had plenty of toilet paper for me, and then I noticed that Dat made a special stop to buy more! There were only the four of us on the tour, and there were four staff members to take care of us, but as the day went on we realized that it was close to the best job in all of Vietnam since they were having just as much fun as we were having.
The kayaks were tied to the back of the boat. We finally reached the place where we would start to kayak. It was so beautiful. I was feeling so much better; I was so happy that I didn’t stay on the boat! We paddled to a small cave that wasn’t filled with water since the tide was out but we got out of the kayaks and walked around and took a few pictures.
Through out the day we paddled through several caves and then into a lagoon. One of the caves was so long and dark that we needed flashlights. Of course Kyle’s surefire flashlight overpowered all the others. The cave was filled with bats. It was very creepy to be paddling through the cave, but it was also very cool. I think Kyle took video and pictures of the cave. Once in the lagoon we saw monkeys in the trees and saw and heard a squirrel flipping out on a branch. It was apparent that Dat was having a great time, or as he would say a “crazy time!” We all were really enjoying the day, and more was to come.
We got back on the boat for lunch; they gave us cold towels and had a tray of cold drinks on the table. The table was adorned with a cloth tablecloth and cloth napkins folded all fancy. Dat told us that lunch was going to be a special surprise! He told us that Lamb was the chef on one of the nicest junk boats in Halong bay until it ran aground on a large rock, and is being repaired (apparently it has been in the “shop” for over two years) Dat has convinced his company to hire Lamb as their chef.
After lunch, and since I had gotten sick the night before, the Phoenix (our junk) would be lucky to get such a talented chef. Dat had us all close our eyes and he brought out the first course! Yes, that’s right we had a several course meal in the middle of Halong Bay in our bathing suits. It was quite spectacular! When we opened our eyes, there sat an exact replica of our junk boat carved our of a large cucumber, with two sails and everything! It was amazing (see pics). Around the boat were four crustation type things that had been grilled. They were a cross between a big shrimp, a lobster, and a praying mantis. They were good, but after my night I didn’t really have the stomach for it, but everyone else really liked it. Dat looked at mine and told me I was lucky, my crustation thing was a female with eggs, oh boy was I lucky, hehe! Kyle ate the rest of my prego shrimp!
It would take me many pages to describe all the amazing carvings and dishes we ate. But if you look at the pictures you will see a large bird, a pair of love birds and other carving that came with our wonderful food. We had pork, squid, rice, cucumbers, and so much more I have trouble remembering. On this trip I have had lechee and dragon fruit for the first time and like them both. We have eaten so much of those that I am a little burnt out on them. We had our first ones our first morning in Bangkok and have had them everywhere else since then. But so wonderful and new, and something we would never see in MN!
After lunch we had a small dance party where Dat shock his tiny butt to this “I’m so lucky, lucky!” song which we all started to love by the end of the day. We did feel quite lucky to be experiencing the day, as amazing as it was. We paddled to one more cave and lagoon, and Dat pointed out more monkeys to us, but the monkey turned out to be Robin. Dat was a big jokester, and he and Kyle got along well. We drove the boat past the floating village and then went to a small beach near the candlestick rock. The beach was shaded at this time of day and we saw jelly fish in the water so we ended our time there pretty quickly. Then we sat on the front of the boat and enjoyed the ride back to our junk boat.
The power was not back on yet, so we all sat on the top of the boat reading and relaxing. Robin did a little swimming and then we all showered and got ready for dinner.
Some people that rode with us to the cruise were only staying one night, and some were spending the second night at a resort on Cat Ba Island. So there was a new group of people that boarded the boat while we were kayaking. This changed our seating arrangements at dinner, plus Dat was nowhere in sight and this new group had a new guide who we didn’t take to like we had Dat! The four of us were put at a table by ourselves even though we had plans to sit with others so that we could recruit them for karaoke later.
Then as the course started to arrive we realized that it was the same exact food as the night before. Not only was this like the movie Groundhog’s Day, but it was a living nightmare for me since I didn’t know what it was from the night before that had made me sick. We all picked at our food, and dreamed of cheeseburgers and pizza! Not a single one of us touched the clams or the fried fish, and I commented on my Papa’s saying that if you don’t have enough food just get drunk! We did have our secret stash of booze in our rooms.
Well despite dinner being horrible, we were very happy with our second day on Halong Bay. The lunch and the kayaking definitely made up for it. After dinner we relaxed up on top of the boat, and told more of our life stories to each other, but I still think Kyle and I dominate the conversation, and Robin and Erika know more about us than they probably ever wanted to know. Erika informed me that I was anal-explosive whereas she is anal-retentive! Funny, but I am sure most of you would agree with her, with all my talk of “The Big D”
After spending 2 more full days with Robin and Erika we are still in love with them and hope that we will be friends for a very long time. We feel so fortunate to have met another couple who so totally fits with the way we like to travel, and also fit with our world view!
We then had to participate in karaoke. Well we didn’t have to, we totally wanted to! Again the crew had to sing if no one else was singing, and the cute boy did YMCA again, with his cute pronunciation of “Young Man” Erika jumped right in and did a song, and when she finished she invited everyone else to sing too, I think she said something about not being good, and since she is not good everyone else who is not a good singer should sing too because it is ok, but she said it all cute and inviting!
Kyle and Robin both did some songs, Robin has this cheesy lounge singer thing down pat, he even sat at a table held up a wine glass and pretended to pour tea in a korny manner while singing. It was great! My cheeks hurt from smiling. Kyle and I did our standard “I got you babe” and I did “Hit me with your best shot” sober for the first time. Again, Kyle took many pictures and video. Erika, Robin and Kyle all did a few more songs, we convinced a couple of other people to sing too. Then it was off to bed. The staff really wanted to close up shop much earlier, but wherever there was a lull in the singing Robin would jump up there and start singing another song. Again this was another memorable night of our trip, quite amazing, and “crazy time!”
