Day 6, 7, and 8, October 1-3 We had really bad internet on the Paradise Elegance. This was the small ship we have been on for three days on Ha Long Bay. The bus ride from Hanoi to the ship was about 3 ½ hours.  It is freeway all the way but through beautiful country. There are lots of paddies along the way where shrimp, crab, even catfish are farmed and lots of smallish towns. On the way we stopped at a pearl inoculation facility.  They open the oysters, remove a membrane, and then transfer a piece of that membrane into another oyster along with a tiny bead of irritant   The second oyster is then returned to the water, and the first one is eaten. The pearl jewelry the facility makes is stunning, but since I have my grandmother’s pearls, I passed on buying anything.  Back to the bus and onward to the ship we were on is lovely, the room, very comfortable, but because of the limestone “haystacks,” the internet is bad.

Hai Phong Harbor, remembering it from the Nightly News

The first day we arrived, we hit the floor running and went to Titov Island, named for Russian cosmonaut German Titov, who met with Ho Chi Minh there, where swimming in the bay was available and where Alan climbed 423 steps straight up to the top of the karst. Then, of course, he came down 423 steps. Next, we took a small motor transport out to where kayaks and row boats were available. There were about 15 people in our rowboat.  We were able to go through one of the karsts, seeing the stalagmites and stalactites which form the interior of the formations. The food on the Elegance is quite good and this night we had lobster Thermidor and steak.

The next day we transferred to an even smaller ship, The Paradise Explorer, so that we could go into some of the smaller lagoons.  We had an amazing Vietnamese lunch on the Explorer.  It was several courses long and some of the best food we have had. Alan then went for a ride in a bamboo boat. It is a small vessel and very Vietnamese, raised in the front and back.  Traditionally they were made of bamboo, and some are still bamboo and fiberglass, but these were steel. They are rowed with two long oars that are sculled and pushed, much like Venetian boats.  Before taking the boat, he went through a small museum about the floating village he was going out to.  We were rowed past houseboats and floating houses and even a boat with convenience store supplies and fresh groceries. Back to the Elegance and another Vietnamese dinner. We started with banana blossom salad, similar to the one we made in our cooking class, and we agreed we liked the one from our class better. We also had a very thick seafood soup, and a make your own sea bass spring roll.

Today after doing tai chi at 6:30, Alan went for another hike, this one was into the largest of the caves in the Ha Long Bay area.  This one was discovered by the French in 1901 and opened to the public in 1993. It is called the Cave of Surprise. Access is by climbing about 200 steps before descending into the cave, where you tour three large rooms, then climb to the exit, overlooking the bay from the highest point on the hike. Then, a straight descending staircase 200 steps down to the bay. Back to the ship, we had breakfast, packed and got ready to transfer to our bus for the ride back to Hanoi. We are now back at the Sofitel Metropole and will be checking in with the tour leader for the rest of the trip. . Before dinner we toured the Sofitel’s bomb shelter left from the Vietnam War. Dinner is on our own tonight. Tomorrow we are going to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, the “Hanoi Hilton” prison, and some other places. We also hope to finally get to the Water Puppet show tomorrow evening.