February 28th was the day that the group went on an overnight trip to Halong Bay on a Junk Boat.
Despite the name, Junk Boats, aren't filled with junk. The one we were on was 3 levels, the top level was the roof, and you could sit/stand/lounge around up there and get goo scenery, also when we stop the boat for the swim stop, many jumped from that level.
The second/main level was the dinning room area, very nicely presented, nice tables, comfortable seating, a good places to lounge around with out the sun beating down on you.
The bottom level (but still above the water level) was where the rooms were, they were pretty nice considering we were on a boat in Halong Bay.
Halong Bay has hundreds of Islands in it. To be honest, they look like they don't belong. They are all super green and mountainous. Some even have monkey's living on them!
After we took tenders to Junk Boat #86, We made a few stops on the boat through out the day. The main attraction was the caves. I never would have guessed there was so much cave-age from this tiny entrance we went in, that expanded deep into the island. The inside was pretty interesting to look at, and gave me time to play with different settings on my camera.
Coming out off the cave, walking back to the tenders to get back to our main boat, we saw a few angry monkeys. They did not want to share food with each other.
Next up was the swim stop. I stayed out off the water this time, something about peeling raw skin and salty water sounded pain full. Also, it was rather cold out. I did get some great pictures of people jumping and flipping off the boat with the sunset behind them.
Dinner was enjoyable, unlike the first lunch. During lunch, I wasn't prepared to pull heads off prawns and dead shell them after they were cooked... Not a fan of things looking at me while i eat them. After dinner, we had our last group party. It was pirate night. Everyone dressed up as pirates... or just kinda dressed ridiculous. THe drinks were flowing, the 'dance' floor to shaking. (i.e the area of the dining room that had it's tables and chairs stacked out of the way). It was a good fun night. We had all finally bonded as team Vietnam.
In the morning after breakfast, we hopped in kayaks and went to Monkey Island... which, guess what they had? Yup, you got it! monkeys! We had each saved a banana from breakfast and threw it ashore to them... again we found that monkeys don't like to share... and make very scary noises when they are angry.
I managed to throw one of my bananas directly at a monkey's head... not on purpose. It was momentarily stunned, but all was well and it gladly ate the banana. I think I'm ready for softball season to start. :-)
I found out my friend threw her banana into the chest of a Vietnamese man, again not on purpose. He was stunned and looked around for who did it, and my friend was cracking up. He seemed kewl with it, and actually tried to throw the banana back to her... so she could aim for his mouth! Crazy!
We kayaked back to the Junk Boat, and lounged for a couple hours until lunch. Then back to Hanoi for the last day!
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Uploaded and sent from an iPad that's exploring Southeast Asia. Please try not to mind the typos and spelling errors. Autocorrect does some funny things.
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