This weekend I spent my down time by getting out of town! I ran away to Ha Long Bay, and now I can't imagine my life without this in it!
I went through a tour group, and there were 11 of us for the weekend. We were picked up at our respective hotels and driven from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. Our mini tour bus was new and well air-conditioned, and we had two seats to ourselves. The distance is only 160km from Hanoi, but due to the roads and traffic, the drive takes between 3.5 to 4 hours to complete. Our tour was lead by Jackie 1 (the driver) and Jackie 2 (our tour guide). Jackie 2 was great. He was funny and knowledgeable and really made the trip fly by. One of the things that I found most interesting was the explanation of the custom of burying the dead.
Vietnamese people bury the dead twice. They bury them after death, but then after four years they dig up the bones (4 years is considered long enough to have the body decompose and leave the bones) during the night and wash the bones in fresh clean water and replace them in a new and better casket. They believe that this is when they are reborn, and this casket is their forever casket for their bones. The job must be completed before daylight or they can't be reborn. Being buried twice represents the person's two homes, the one they lived in with their family, and the one they start with their own family. This practice continues in the more rural areas today, however in the major cities they are running out of room, and so cremation is starting to become more common place.
The dead are very important to the living. If you give a good life to the dead, they will defend you and give you a good life. The first son in the family is responsible for keeping the death date records. This son keeps a notebook that is passed on through the generations with all the deaths in the family recorded. This way the son can make sure that the death dates of each descendent are celebrated. Part of the celebration is to get paper replicas of the items that you would like to send to the dead in the world they are now a part of, and burn those replicas to send them to your dead. It was stories like this that really helped the drive seem to fly by.
Once we arrived in Ha Long Bay, we had a taste of the chaos that a Mecca of tourism can provide. Tour groups, buses and ships as far as the eye can see. Jackie 1 manages to snag a spot right infront of the departure point, and Jackie 2 ushers us right onto a transfer skiff. We take a two minute ride out to our boat, and we are ready to go. The tour group is a perfect size, the boat is more then big enough for us, and we get assigned our cabins and sit down to the first of many indescribable meals! The choice, the amount and the presentation are beyond words! I can't imagine the effort that went into us! While we overate, the boat set sail.
I don't know how to begin to describe to you the size and beauty of Ha Long Bay. Once we get out of the harbour, the number of boats begins to thin out and we are off on a peaceful sail. I went to work on setting a personal record of how many pictures one human can take in a single weekend!

Along our way, we stopped at the Pearl Oyster Farm. I didn't think that this was something I wanted to see, because I knew kayaking was next, but it was really interesting! They grow three different types of oysters here that produce different kinds of pearls. The workers scrape matter off the inside of the oyster shell, producing a powder. They press this powder into a ball. They then take the live oysters out of the water (fun fact they can survive out of water for 1-2 hours), take a piece of the oyster membrane, make an incision in the oyster's gonads and insert the membrane and ball and then close the oyster up and return it to the water for however many years it needs to produce a pearl. The length of time is dependent on the oyster and pearl type.
When harvesting the pearls, they open the oyster completely, which kills it, and they use the meat to feed the workers at the oyster farm, so nothing is wasted. It really was an interesting tour.
After this we sailed to a calm and quiet area, and pulled out the kayaks (YAY!). Did I mention how patiently I was waiting for the kayaking portion of our tour? The kayaks were tandem kayaks, but since we had an odd number for some unknown reason Jackie 2 asked me if I would like to be in a kayak on my own. I was happy to have the opportunity, and for an hour got to imagine that kayaking on Ha Long Bay was my life. The water is clear, the colours are the kind we cannot duplicate. Getting to paddle up close to the rock walls was great. I would love to wax poetic on it all, but simply said, it was breathtaking!

Once I was forced against my will out of the kayak, we had some free time to swim!! We went swimming in Ha Long Bay!!! We jumped off the boat into Ha Long Bay!!! I think at some point I turned 12 again! The water is very warm, and very salty. I don't know why I was surprised, I just have trouble understanding how such a huge body of water can be so warm. After the crew dragged us out of the water, it was time to shower and then be fed again!
After dinner we all participated in some squid fishing. I am pretty sure that this activity is something that they made up to entertain the crew! Give the foreigners a piece of bamboo with some string and a lure and tell them to make it look like a prawn swimming! A light is attached to the back of the boat, and we all sat there trying to imitate prawns swimming and watching some tiny squids swim by. I actually really enjoyed this. After most people gave up, I continued to sit there and watch the fish and squid. Most of the squid were tiny, 5cm in size, but eventually I saw a couple that were around 10 cm and then I saw one that was about 20cm long. Eventually, a jelly fish swam into view, and it was mesmerizing and peaceful to watch it make it's way through the fish.

Sunday morning brought another feast, and then a trip to Sung Sot Cave. It is the largest cave in Ha Long Bay, and thousands of tourists are Brought there everyday. Another activity I was not initially interested in, but glad that I got the chance to see it. We climbed up the Side of one of the larger rocks in Ha Long Bay, and entered the cave. It was huge and the rock formations were fascinating.

We took another route back to the harbour and enjoyed another couple of hours of beauty. Along the way we were treated to a demonstration on how to make traditional Vietnamese fried spring rolls. Once we learned how to make the filling, we all got a chance to roll our own. They became part of our lunch, and were delicious! After lunch, we had to return to reality. We returned to the harbour, found Jackie 1 and set out to return for Hanoi! Somehow...I have to focus on work in the morning!