Cruising, Spelunking, Kayaking, Thunder and Lightening

Halong Bay is the natural wonder in Vietnam. There are over 3000 limestone islands is this bay and it is absolutely spectacular. It doesn’t seem to matter where we go on this earth . . . I am always amazed at the splendor and diversity of what God has created for us to enjoy!

During the 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi we stopped at a craft workshop where they employ handicraft people to make jewelry, embroidery, lacquer ware, stone carvings, etc. We were most impressed by the embroidery these young people were doing. They sat at rows and rows of tables with a picture to copy. You can see in the pictures their incredible work.

Shortly after arriving at the harbor we were taken to our boat - I don’t know that paying $70 for our overnight cruise got us any better of a boat than the $48 we were going to pay - but our crew and our guide were fantastic and I can’t even begin to describe the food we were served - it just kept coming and coming and coming! There were 2 crew in particular who simply could not get enough of Emma - they kept holding her and playing with her - she has quite an engaging personality!

Michaela was able to go in both of the caves we stopped at but Emma was sleeping for the first stop so I only made it into the second one. I will let the pictures speak for themselves rather than bore you with my lack of descriptive writing.
Shortly after bedding down for the night we were hit with an incredible thunder and lightening storm. We were anchored safely in a sheltered cover but the thought did cross my mind that Ken would not be very happy with me if we were struck by lightening while cruising the South China Sea with two of his daughters. We got drenched before we closed our windows, but it did make our adventure all that more memorable!!!

Right after breakfast we were given the choice to kayak or go by small boat to a little museum dedicated to the small fishing village we anchored in. Michaela opted for the kayak and Emma and I for the small boat. 600 people live in these 120 floating houses (shacks) where they fish for a living.

We then headed back to the harbor while being served one more lunch on the way back. As soon as we drove off it started pouring rain - perfect timing!

Today is our last full day in Hanoi so we plan to finish up some shopping and take some more pictures out on the street.

Ken, Breann, Jalena, Alysha and Becca - we are counting the hours till we get on that plane to come home to you . . . we can’t wait for you to meet Emma and I can’t wait to hold my girls close - we have missed you so much!!!

A Word About This Entry - I hope everyone has enjoyed reading this . . . it’s hard to write for such a diverse audience . . . . I have gotten emails asking for more about Emma, I have gotten emails asking for more about Vietnam . . . I have tried to do both. Part of the frustration comes with the internet connection and my fatigue - we go all day long and wh en I sit down to write I can barely put 2 words together let alone 2 sentences so I know my writing has probably been rather boring. At times the internet connection is so slow it takes 4 minutes to upload each of the pictures I put on here. Last night there was no connection at all so I could not even access the blog to write about Halong Bay. This morning the connection is fast so I have been able to upload a lot of pictures.

Posted by Mary Jeane from Every Tribe, Every Nation… ‘s Blog