Andre and Wendy: Ha Long Bay day 2

Ha Long Bay Cruise Day 2

Wake up for sunrise, but don't bother to go up on deck, open up the bathroom window, hang out and take a few pictures.

Up on deck shortly after 7AM, walk by most of the ship doing Tia Chi, oops forgot about that. Found coffee and tea, tomorrow I am asking for Vietnamese coffee. Breakfast is part buffet part they serve you, part Eastern part Western. Group is splitting up today. 1 nighters are heading out early on their little excursions, we have a bit more time to relax. We realize there will only be 10 of us left on this ship that holds 50 tonight.

First excursion today is I imagine where everyone goes, we visit the caves and beach at Co Cave. After the visit to the cave we all go on a kayak trip around some of the sandstone mountains. Fun to be able to get up really close. I guess years ago they used to be able to have BBQ's and eat in the cave here, but this has been stopped.

Back to the ship and a bit of a break again while we move further along through the mountains, no other boats here, but so many things floating in the water. We were told much of the debris is from fish farms that took a bit hit last week with a storm, it was probably the same storm we got in Cambodia. There are so many floating Styrofoam boxes it looks like, very sad to see, and no one picking any of them up.

We pull up to a spot where we will be having lunch. Staff get off to start a BBQ and set up the beach for us. We need to take the little transport boat that is tied to the back of our boat to get to the beach. It is a pretty beach, but part of the plan was to spend some time swimming at the beach after lunch. So hot that I went for a dip but managed to wack my elbow on some coral, didn't realize it was so close to the surface, the visibility is not great in the water. Andre is so disappointed, we didn't even think of bringing our snorkel gear. 2 guys did go out snorkeling, but both said the visibility was terrible. Everything was BBQ today for lunch, chicken, pork, fish, shrimp and veggies and rice. After lunch only one couple went in swimming, and Andre went in with his camera to take a few pictures and managed to bang his knee on coral, just not a great beach for swimming. We are told 1 more hour on the beach but everyone decides they want to head back to the ship. So we all get loaded on the supply boat, and off we go, well try to go. The boat is stuck, everyone moves to the back of the boat, doesn't do much good. 4 of the staff jump in the water to push, we get unstuck and the 4 guys are hauled back on board and off we go.

Afternoon spent being lazy on the top deck watching the beautiful scenery go by. A little disappointed that the ship has turned around and we are now headed back to probably where we were last night. Everyone seems to be parked close together, I think there were 6 boats near us last night.

Supper on the outside deck which was very nice, again so much food. So quiet with only 5 couples left on board. Our cruise director is also an amateur magician, last night he had someone called up to do a magic trick, tonight he went around to each table and asked them if they wanted to see a card trick, of course we said yes and we have no idea how he did it.

After supper fishing off the back deck again. Tonight is Andres turn to catch a small squid, I catch a very small fish on a baited line that is returned. Andres small squid is also returned, but not until it manages to get a little black ink on him.

Another early night. Wish it was clear enough that we could see the stars.

Today's Pictures:

Sunrise in the little cove were anchor in