We had to pack our bags the night before and bring everything with us for our overnight stay on the cruise ship. After a lot of researching the options, we settled on a 2-day, 1-night stay on Indochina Sails. A driver picked us up early and we embarked on the nearly 4-hour drive to Ha Long Bay. The words “Ha Long” mean “descending dragon” in Sino-Vietnamese, or Vietnamese borrowed from Chinese. There’s an ancient legend about how dragons sent to defend the country spit jade and jewels into the bay that turned into islands and islets, but I like to think of the islands as the backs of dragons descending into the water. I think the name adds such a mystic element to the already stunning landscape.

On the way we got dumped at various duel souvenir/restroom stops, one of which I fell in love with a turtle measuring tape at. You pull the tail of the crocheted turtle to measure and then press the center of its belly to pull the tape back in. It was not only adorable, but also useful. I had a long bargaining battle with the ladies who worked there. Ultimately I got the price reduced a little, but it was still probably overpriced for Vietnam.

When we finally arrived at the dock, they gave us drinks as we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive in the Indochina Sails office. The office had walls of windows that looked out over the port— a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors of cruise ships docked next to the boardwalks.

Once everyone arrived, we put on life jackets and boarded a small ferry to the larger cruise ship. We were in the second round of people to take the ferry, meaning we sat outside in the stifling, humid heat until the boat came back from the first trip. At least there was a pavilion shading us from the sun.

We walked through dark-wooded hallways to drop off our bags. Soon after boarding, it was time for lunch. Everyone on the boat sat at tables with their party in the dining area, which was surrounded by windows looking out onto the bay. After lunch, we hung out for a little while on the roof of the boat, enjoying the scenery. Soon it was time for the first stop: Surprise Cave. We got off the boat and walked into a small cave, stalactites and stalagmites illuminated in the dark room.

When we continued down the steps, we landed in a slightly bigger cave. When we walked a little further, we discovered a cave as big as an underground city. It was gigantic. It’s no wonder they call it “Surprise Cave.” Light from an opening above us illuminated the misty depths and weird shaped formations inside the cave.

We walked the path, which eventually led out of the cave and ended in a great aerial view of the bay. Back to the boat!

We had the rest of the day to relax on the boat. We took books up to the top floor and lay on reclining chairs in the shaded part of the deck. It was so peaceful, and in the shade it was the perfect temperature. We watched one couple that was lying on chairs directly in the sun. The guy was pale white, no base layer tan whatsoever. The girl was a little darker, but we were seriously concerned for the guy in the sun. The sun in Vietnam is absolutely brutal. Later in the trip, I got burned wearing a long-sleeve swimsuit, sunscreen, and sitting in the shade under trees a majority of the time, just to give you an idea. And they were out there for hours. More on them later…

As the sun began to set, we had a nice, buffet-style dinner. The chef hosted a fruit and vegetable carving demonstration later in the evening. Dan and I went. He began by running a carrot through a device much like a pencil sharpener, creating a long, thin carrot shaving. When he rolled it into a conical shape, it looked like an intricate orange flower. I love that Thai chefs can make food into art. I was curious to see what kind of formation he came up with next. Then, he cut an onion in half, and chopped zigzag lines in the top. When he twisted the layers of the onion, it turned into a lotus flower. He placed a candle in the center, and it was really beautiful.

Next, he took an apple. Slicing thin, triangular cuts into three sides of it, he fanned them out, creating the wings and tail.

He used the curved top of the apple to create an arched neck, the indentation for the seed— the eye. I couldn’t believe he made such an intricate swan out of an ordinary apple. I can’t say I’ve ever once looked at an apple and thought, “That would make a great swan.” It makes me wonder who first thought of making animals out of food and flowers. I guess that was one form of entertainment before technology. It’s certainly very creative and beautiful.

Then we went back upstairs to the deck to find Zack and Josh. We decided to go back down to the main floor by the bar because it was happy hour. We played hearts and spades. There was one other couple hanging out by the bar, so we talked to them. We knew everyone else on the boat was in their rooms, probably having sex. It was early evening and no one was around. We played a lot of cards as Dan and Zack got more drunk. Josh and I aren’t the heaviest drinkers… Once the drink deals were over, we headed back up to the deck and enjoyed the view of the bay at night. A big moon cast light on the water and the other boats docked nearby. It was peaceful and the air was such a pleasant temperature (a rarity in Vietnam). We truly had the whole boat to ourselves. After hours of being the only people in sight, we figured it was probably time for bed.

We had a little trouble getting up for the first stop of the day, and they had to make an extra ferry ride just for us. Whoops. Ti Top Island was very close though. At first glance, it just looked like a beach. Some people were swimming and hanging out in the shade. However, there was also a steep hike up to a great lookout point for photos.

We did the hike, took some shots, and by the time we got down, there wasn’t much time for the beach. That was okay though, because we’d be spending plenty of days on the beach after this in Phu Quoc. Once we got back on the boat, it departed for the port. We enjoyed the last moments of the cruise on the deck.

Again, it was supposedly the “rainy season,” but we had perfect weather the entire trip. We were so lucky. It was at this point we realized that couple with the really pale guy WAS NO LONGER ON THE BOAT. He and his girlfriend weren’t on the deck, they didn’t get off at the beach, and they didn’t get off the cruise ship with everyone else. They weren’t there anymore. We thought of any possible reason you’d have to leave a Ha Long Bay cruise early, and we concluded that unless there was some kind of drastic family emergency… it must have been an extremely severe sunburn. There would be no other reason to leave a cruise ship (which I’m sure was incredibly inconvenient). A driver took us back to Hanoi after reaching land, again, stopping at random tourist traps. This time it was a pearl and jewelry showroom/store. I’m sure we weren’t their target audience. Our driver disappeared for like 20 minutes, so we just hungout at this pearl depot/bathroom stop until he finally showed up.

When we got back to Hanoi, I was pretty adamant on seeing something Vietnam War related while we were here, so we went to the Vietnam Military History Museum (covered in the Vietnam Pt. 3 post).