Ending with a Bang

For my last weekend in Vietnam, I flew up to the north to the North of Vietnam, to spend 1 night & 2 days aboard the Bhaya cruise. The cruise sets sail on Halong Bay, which is about a 4 hour drive from the city of Hanoi (which is the city I flew into).

Ha Long Bay a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phảtown, and part of Van Don district. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

After flying into Hanoi, my teacher friends and I stayed 1 night at Hanoi Elegance (a great hotel in Hanoi with staff who will pamper and attend to your every need). Then early in the morning, we drove for about 4 hours to port.  The cruise itself, Bhaya was really nice and all the staff on board really did try their best to make you feel at home ...
from handing you wet towels as soon as you got on the boat to finding you a deck of cards to play with!

I shared a room with Michelle and we couldn't believe the view outside of our window! It was just breath taking and it really felt like we were in paradise even if it was for a night!

All day & night, our ship the Bhaya Classic #4 sailed along the bay except for a couple of times when we stopped & docked to check out a fishing village, swim, and of course for the night.
We did lots of things such as participating in a cooking demonstration(learned how to make fresh spring rolls!), sunbathing, swimming off of the boat, and visiting a cave. We also had nice buffet lunches of crabs, shrimps, and various other foods along with a nice 5 course dinner.

(vino on the the top deck of our boat) 

(our chef on board)

(one of those crispy spring rolls is by me!)

(view from up high on one of the limestone karsts/cave)

(inside the cave)

(after we climbed down from the cave, making our way back to our boat!)

(squid fishing on the boat.... )

(dipped my feet right in!)

I don't think any words can truly describe the beauty that is of Halong Bay. It was incredible to witness one of the 7 wonders of nature. I do hope that I can return one day or one of you reading this entry can also witness this for yourself! This weekend was a great way to end my Vietnamese adventures with a BANG!