Endlessly Stunning - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

We just returned from a 3 day, 2 night trip to Ha Long Bay. The bay is situated on the northern coast of Vietnam, a 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi. We arrived at the bay and immediately got on board our boat - a three story ship we called home for 2 days. Our package included every meal, a night on the boat, a night in a hotel on Cat Ba Island and all activities - touring a cave, bicycling, trekking, kayaking and swimming. It was amazing scenery and good company :)


The whole bay is filled with these beautiful islands and rock formations - you sail through them for hours and they only seem to get more amazing . . .



There are many floating fishing villages throughout the area - can you imagine living here!?!?


We hiked up a hill to get a better look at this incredible place!


It was stunning throughout the entire day.



For a couple of hours we biked around the backside of Cat Ba Island. We were able to see a small village and the rice fields they work every day.


This is the fine group of men and women we got to share Ha Long Bay with. Our tour guide Lucky (the small guy in the front) was GREAT! We had a blast with everyone!


A Vietnamese tradition (particularly for older men) is to drink snake wine. It's made by placing homemade rice wine in a container with snakes and, in this case, a bird. Drinking the wine is believed to make men stronger and healthier. We all tried it and determined that it tastes a lot like sherry - yes, we actually drank the liquid you see in the picture . . .


All in all we had an active yet relaxing 3 days in Ha Long Bay. The views were endless and we felt blessed to have been able to experience them.

A couple more days in Vietnam then we're off to Shanghai, China.

K & A