Today was the day I got to visit the beautiful Ha Long Bay, but not without yet another 3.5 hour bus ride which included multiple pickup points and a bathroom break/tourist trap stop.  Fortunately the bus was comfortable and I was sitting next to my friend Angela whom I have been traveling with and another traveler from Germany named Matthias.  Matthias and I were determined to see the iconic boat that can be seen on almost every postcard and travel book for Vietnam which is generally colored brown and has 2 or 3 large sails with the title of the tour company written on it.  Sadly, we never saw the brown boat with 2 or 3 large sails but we did see a white boat with one sail.  Oh well.

So just when I thought the Vietnamese were only crazy drivers, I learned today that they’re also crazy boat drivers!  You see, leaving the port turned into a bumper boat game where each boat showed no respect for nearby boats and just pushed their way out from the port.  At first I thought the captain of our boat was drunk but seeing other boats exit in the same fashion confirmed that “this is just standard protocol”.  Never a dull moment here.

The boat made two stops, one to a cave that had rock formations and another to a place where people could go kayaking around the bay.  I decided to stay on the boat and enjoy the view which you can see for yourself form the pictures below.