I am happy to report that I survived last night without
anything else going wrong, and while that sounds a little exaggerative on my
part, I assure you it is not! Just one more
night here and I should be in the clear… for a little while at least! Thankfully today we did not have to spend any
time in the hotel, or in Ha Noi. Today we
got to visit Ha Long Bay on a private boat tour! We got on the boat at about 11 in the morning
and hung out and sketched for about an hour or so, waiting for the crew to
serve lunch. I am not a huge fan of seafood,
but the majority of the food they served us was pretty good! I had to remove the head, shell, and tail
from the shrimp I ate, and had to eat the crab meat out of the shell. Talk about fresh seafood! They also served fried calamari and some type
of fish that still had some bone in it.
I did not eat either of those; the texture is a little too much for me. The thing with an Asian diet is that I never
feel full; but I am probably a lot healthier eating the foods that I have been
lately! I think I may have even lost a
few pounds! Anyways, back to Ha Long
Bay!
The boat cruise was a great way to relax and finally slow down for a bit. The bay is absolutely beautiful! A slight haze covers the entire bay almost all the time, which may seem like a hindrance, but it actually makes it look even more beautiful! Rock silhouettes appear to be jutting out of the water in the distance so it looks like you are surrounded by them. No words can describe!
The Bay is where several Vietnamese make a living off of aquaculture. They live in the bay on houseboats and have floating structures that trap the fish. It was a very unique thing to see. The boat dropped us off on an island to visit a famous cave. The cave had formed both stalactites and stalagmites over the years due in part to continuous sea water erosion. It is probably the coolest cave I will ever have a chance to see! After the cave, our boat took us back to the mainland where we boarded our bus to head back. The thought of heading back to the “hotel of doom” was so dreadful at the time that I just decided to sleep all the way back!
My plans quickly changed as I was distracted by the beautiful drive home. Rice fields and vegetable patches dominated the landscape, and every now and then a cluster of three-story, French-style homes would appear right in the middle of all the fields. It is amazing to me that the Vietnamese’s lives depend on these fields. They spend their entire existence in the fields grooming their crops just to make a living. It is the same with the aquaculture in Ha Long Bay. I cannot imagine growing up knowing that you have no choice but to take over the family crops one day; but most of them do not think of it that way. To them it is just their way of survival. Compared to other countries I have visited so far, this seems to be the most difficult conditions to live in. The Vietnamese farmers do it because they have to, and somehow find happiness in it all! Now that is some inspiration!
The boat cruise was a great way to relax and finally slow down for a bit. The bay is absolutely beautiful! A slight haze covers the entire bay almost all the time, which may seem like a hindrance, but it actually makes it look even more beautiful! Rock silhouettes appear to be jutting out of the water in the distance so it looks like you are surrounded by them. No words can describe!
The Bay is where several Vietnamese make a living off of aquaculture. They live in the bay on houseboats and have floating structures that trap the fish. It was a very unique thing to see. The boat dropped us off on an island to visit a famous cave. The cave had formed both stalactites and stalagmites over the years due in part to continuous sea water erosion. It is probably the coolest cave I will ever have a chance to see! After the cave, our boat took us back to the mainland where we boarded our bus to head back. The thought of heading back to the “hotel of doom” was so dreadful at the time that I just decided to sleep all the way back!
My plans quickly changed as I was distracted by the beautiful drive home. Rice fields and vegetable patches dominated the landscape, and every now and then a cluster of three-story, French-style homes would appear right in the middle of all the fields. It is amazing to me that the Vietnamese’s lives depend on these fields. They spend their entire existence in the fields grooming their crops just to make a living. It is the same with the aquaculture in Ha Long Bay. I cannot imagine growing up knowing that you have no choice but to take over the family crops one day; but most of them do not think of it that way. To them it is just their way of survival. Compared to other countries I have visited so far, this seems to be the most difficult conditions to live in. The Vietnamese farmers do it because they have to, and somehow find happiness in it all! Now that is some inspiration!
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