Ha Long: Day 3

Sunday was a pretty tiring day, despite the fact that it began at 6:45 with me feeling fully rested. I got up, threw on my bathing suit and sunscreen again, and headed to the roof of our hotel. I found a breakfast buffet there and it was so good. I had pineapple and watermelon juices, bread and strawberry jelly, fried rice, fruit, and some coffee. At 8:15 I met our group in the hotel lobby and we walked across the street to the pier, boarded another double decker boat, and slept in the sun for the hour boat ride. At 9:15 we arrived at a small house boat and Jackie and I got into a kayak together. Neither of us had ever kayaked before and it took some time before we got into a good rhythm. Our arms and abs got tired pretty quickly, as we paddled around the huge mountains protruding from the pristine water until about 10:15. We then spotted a small stretch of beach and raced towards it. Jackie and I explored, looked for shells, swam, and lay in the sun for about an hour before getting back into the canoe, (Jackie fell out of it once as well) and spending the next half an hour paddling back to our big boat. We arrived at our group's boat at 11:30, which turned out to be half an hour late. No one had told us the time to be back, though, and Long was out in a motor boat searching for Bryan and Mike anyways. We finally found everybody, got them aboard the group's boat, and left the kayak rental house boat at 11:45. This put us back at our pier on Cat Ba Island at 12:45, after I talked with Jackie, Cathy, and Brittany for the hour boat ride while lying in the sun on the boat's bow.

We had from 12:45-1:15 to return to our hotel rooms, shower off the immense amount of salt that had collected on our bodies, and pack up our stuff. Our group had an amazing and filling lunch on the roof of the hotel and it included: fish, soup, squid, lots of different greens, and Coke. I was stuffed and then we paid for the meal and the kayaking before grabbing our stuff from our rooms and meeting in the hotel lobby. Then we all walked across the street to the very same pier and boarded an express boat back to Ha Long City. We got there early enough and most of us (including me) sat below the deck of the boat in what looked like an airplane cabin for the hour trip. I read my book, listened to music, and met some Chinese people from Seattle who are traveling in Viet Nam.

We all got onto a chartered bus a little after 4:00 pm and I took the time to write in my journal for class, listen to music, and finish my book. We stopped at a green bean cake castle (my personal name for it) from 5:15-5:30 and we sampled and then bought boxes of the delicious stuff. The bus ride then continued and I moved to the back and talked with the Union students about their Greek life until 7:00 pm, when we arrived back at the dorm. I unpacked, uploaded and sorted through my pictures, and found I couldn't log on to the wireless internet to check my email before walking to Asashi Sushi with Brittany, Meggie, Jill, and Cathy at 8:00. I ordered the fried rice with salmon, salmon sushi rolls, and of course a Coke.

We ate quickly and then some of us headed down the street to Vincom only to find that it closes at 9:00 pm. I used the ATM and we then caught a taxi for the short way back to the dorm because we were tired and Meggie's foot hurt from the damage some barnacles had done in Ha Long.

Back at the dorm I checked my email and then took a xo om to Finnegan's, where I met DiDi, Monica, Dale, Bryan, Tony, and Sarah all talking to Co Yen, one of my Vietnamese language teachers from Sai Gon. It was nice to catch up with her and we told jokes for along time until about midnight, when Bryan and I caught a xe om back to the dorm. The gate was already closed so we climbed the fence and I was asleep by 12:30 am.

If you would like to see more of my pictures from this weekend (and from the village of Mai Chau), go to http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020739&l=f34dd&id=32001827 and http://hws.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020741&l=7ea72&id=32001827 Enjoy! :)