Halong Bay Part II and Unilingual Adventures

During our time in Halong bay we stayed on the "Halong Emotion" boat.  There were lots of these small little cruise style boots (around 30 passengers) that took people out on the bay some for overnight trips like ours and some just for day trips.  (Luckily we weren't on this one!! Yikes!!)  Every time we left the boat for an outing or returned from one there was a staff member smiling and waving to us from the entrance.

It was also decorated SO nicely!  I couldn't believe we were on a boat!  Below is a shot of the dining room and the hallway were most of the sleeping cabins were located.

There was also a nice balcony/sun deck on the top where we spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying  the beautiful sights.

We found it very interesting that all the pricing on the boat was in American dollars (rather than Vietnamese dong).  In addition all the printed iteneries and signs were all in English.  Granted, as always, the translations were sometimes a bit humorous but we could read it so we're not complaining.

Out of the 30 or so passengers on board and the 10 or so crew members, we were the only two who were native English speakers.  (The other tourists were a mix of German, Swiss, Swedish, Italian, Korean, and French.  The crew members were Vietnamese).  Yet English was the common language that everyone used to communicate with!  It wasn't just a situation where everyone spoke a common language but also knew a little English  that they used to communicate with us.  They all were using English to communicate with each other because it was the one language they all had in common (even if only a few words). Very interesting to realize how wide spread America's influence is in other parts of the world.

 The other strange part about it was that as we sit there with at upwards of five different conversations swirling around us that we didn't understand, we realized that we were the only ones on the boat who couldn't have a private conversation out in the open!  Everyone else could understand us when we spoke in our primary (only!) language but we couldn't understand them when they spoke in theirs.  Kind of creepy!  To remedy this problem in the future, we decided to create our own personal secret communication made up of speaking English very fast mixed in with some Pig Latin, a little bit of broken Spanish (leftover from high school) and a little broken Arabic (leftover from deployment) all with a thick Texas drawl. It still needs to be refined a bit but I think we are on to something. :)

Halong Bay Adventures Part I

Over the Lunar/Chinese New Year (a BIG holiday in this part of the world) Hubs and I took a trip to Vietnam.  We spent two days and one night on a boat out in the Halong Bay, a famous area that literally has thousands of giant islands and rock formation jutting up everywhere.  It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.  Thanks to the addition of incredibly still, green water and some light fog the whole area gave off a very mystical, ethereal vibe.  We felt like we had stumbled into a secret filming location for a  movie that was  sort of cross between "Jurassic Park" and "The Lord of the Rings". :)

Notice how tiny the overnight cruise boats look next to the giant formations!

We got to explore the beach on this island a bit and also hiked to the building on the top for an amazing view.









The second morning on the boat we visited a floating fishing village.  These people literally live on their permanent "house" boats and have other smaller fishing boats that go out during the day.  There is a whole community here complete with a school for the lower elementary students, a Buddhist worshiping area, and a fish farm that the wives and children maintain to supplement what the men catch each day.

Some of the residents of the floating village took our group out in their small "sampon" row boats for a closer view of the area.

It was so quiet and peaceful out there it almost seemed like time stopped for a bit!