So I don’t know if you’ve gathered this or not yet but it rained A LOT during my travels around Vietnam. I’ve lost count of how many sexy photos there are of me in a poncho. (Sorry, did I say sexy? I mean stupid). But when we got to Halong Bay it was miraculously sunny. Not burn yourself in the Tropics kind of sunny, but the sun was shining and that was good enough for us. So much so that we proceeded to shed our clothes and expose our pasty rain-soaked skin in bikinis and shorts. Luckily for you, I won’t be sharing those photos here; they are currently being incinerated for the world’s greater good. Probably just as well, you may have been blinded by the sun radiating off our white skin…..
So, the sun was shining, we were floating in the middle of the Bay and we were bored. Not to say we don’t enjoy sunbathing, but let’s face it, that wasn’t why we had come to ‘Nam. (I lie, it was part of the reason, I mean it’s SE Asia, after all. But after several days of drinking beer whilst looking glumly through rain-streaked windows a-la Joey from Friends, we weren’t really in a sunbathing mood anymore). Kayaking in Halong Bay seemed like a much better way to spend our time. In hindsight that probably wasn’t the best idea straight after a mahoosive seafood lunch, but we threw caution to the wind. And boy am I glad we did. It was amazeballs. (I promised myself I would squeeze that word in somewhere in my blog and I think I’ve done it pretty seamlessly). Seriously, it was the most fun you could have with your clothes on and a restrictive water jacket strapped to your chest.
It was so relaxing out there, bobbing around on the water, floating into caves and trying to avoid running ashore (okay, that part wasn’t so relaxing, but you get the idea). We even fished a piece of paper out of the water and through our powers of deduction managed to work out that this was in fact someone’s school homework! Yes, a child from one of Halong’s floating villages must have turned up to school that morning and stated “Sorry Miss, I dropped my homework in the Bay” to which they probably received sceptical looks. But if that teacher is reading this (highly unlikely) I can in fact confirm that this is true. It’s obviously much more hazardous than you would think living on those floating villages. Not only do you have to worry about the dog possibly eating your homework, you also have to contend with the fact that it could fall in the water, only to be scooped up by a couple of idiot Westerners (the homework, not the dog. Although that is a worry in itself). Bad times.
Anyway, I think the photographs speak for themselves. Life is good when the sun is shining and you’re in Vietnam.
I remember we had a lot of rain too. Especially in the North. The weather in Vietnam is so diverse from region to region. We loved Ha Long Bay, but I so wish that I went kayaking. That looks amazing. Glad you had some sunshine
We did the climb/beach thing instead of the kayaking, though I think maybe we should have done the kayaking. It looks cool. Although, I must say that the photos from the summit of our climb were some of our favorite from Ha Long Bay. Also, when we were there, the kayak one of the guys in our group was in sunk…and we’d just been in a sinking kayak in Lake Malawi…so maybe it was the right choice for us after all. Glad you stayed afloat (and had those nice life jackets just in case). Hooray for sunshine.