Our Hanoi trip - Day 2

Day 2 - Ha Long Bay

Leaving Hanoi City for Halong Bay.

It's about 3 hours drive I think! There were like 20 of us and all are packed in a mini van!! Like sardine in a tin! :D Anyway, the journey wasn't that bad. We stopped over at one place (dunno what's the name of that place). Biasa lah kan.. sure got shopping place one... and toilets :) So cuci2 mata lor...

This facinating porceline dolls in Au Dai... Vietnam ladies' tradional clothes.

Among all... these things caught our eyes most. These are not painting you know. It's jahitan sulaman! Looks so real, kan? I was really fascinated by all these beautiful things...

Look at the workmanship..... very neat eh? Can see the benang2??The benang2 used for this workmanship..And Hubby was really fascinated with these boxes...
Hey look.... fat lil piggy!! Eh... not the one in pink tudung, silly! That's me!! :P

And these beautiful Au-dai... are simply stunning!

And finally.... after 3 hours journey... we safely arrived at Halong Bay :)

Smiling happily now that we've finally arrived :)

When we arrived at HaLong bay... our tourist guide, Mr Hong started requesting for our passports (we were specifically told to bring our passports along during this trip). Hubby pun dengan confident nya bukak his sling bag... and to our big surprise... no passports were found in it. Huh?? He must have forgotten to get it from our hotel concierge!! Panic jugak we all!! Alamak.. dah sampai sini (3 hours journey pulak tu!!) and don't tell us we are not allowed to go just because our passport is missing!! :~( What to do??!! Mr Hong mula2 tu agak irritated lah coz dah berkali2 pesan bawa passport kan! But after dealing with the government officer kat jeti tu.. alhamdulillah... dapat jugak we all naik kapal junk tu!! Phew!!!
There were lots of Vietnamese ships.. or rather they call it 'junks' kat jeti tu. Very, very nice scenery.

We were brought to our junk using a small boat. Probably our boat is a bit bigger... so tak leh 'parking' kat jeti tu :) The name of our junk is 'Ha Long Phoenix'. Not all our friends are in the same junk. Jill and her family were assigned to another junk.
Once we stepped our foot on the junk, we were given our room numbers and a few minutes to freshen up ourselves in our rooms before lunch was served. The room was just 'basic'... just nice for the 2 of us :) View from our cozy room.

*Burp!* Hubby bersandarar kekenyangan agaknya! :D The seafood served was delicious!! Yummy! Among the dishes served was this cute crab...

After lunch... sempat la posing maut kat atas kapal tu... hehe.

With Tracy's family on top of the junk.
A cute 'gazebo' on top of our junk...

Enjoying the breathtaking beauty outside our room....

More beautiful scenary along the way...

Later that evening, our junk launched at a small island called... errr... tak ingat lah... hehe. There were soooo many islands around Halong Bay.. I can't remember what the tourist guide (Mr Hwang) told us... hehe. Anyway... below is probably the name of the island?? or probably the name of the cave where we visited later... (whatever! heheh)

Listening to our local tourist guide, Mr Hwang (the one in grey jacket) on the history of the island and cave.

Yeap! We had to climb all the way up... to enter the cave. Tak la seteruk tangga Batu Caves kot! :)

Inside the cave is beautiful! It has colourful lights to brighten up the dark cafe (and apprently made the bats ran away).. and it is very clean :) Not smelly! :)With Laurence mom... an english teacher from Sarawak.

Walking beside Mr Hwang exiting the cave.

Beautiful scenary surrounding the island... This man was trying to sell food or drinks to us...

Last pose.. before leaving the island ;)

Listening to Mr Hwang - briefing on our kayak trip... yeap!! We went kayaking at Halong Bay!! Awesome!!!! :D

The fishermen village around the thousands of islands of Halong Bay..

Wohooo!! I sure had fun kayaking at Halong Bay!!! :D This is my first kayaking experience in my whole entire life! Wah.. macam tak caya!! At age of 38++ (plus plus tu significant tu.. hik hik!) baru dapat cuba berkayak! In Vietnam somemore!!! :D

We managed to overtake Tracy's dad (in red jacket) and Lawrance!
Or... did they overtake us?? Nevermind! :D

We went for about 7 kms I think... but the kind Mr Hwang was always there to make sure everyone was safe.

Kayaking while enjoying the beautiful nature... phew!

Safe and sound.... landed on ground :D

Kepenatan after the kayak activity... getting ready to go back to our junk.

Finally! So glad to see our junk again! Tak larat dah rasa... lenguh satu badan!!!

Back in the junk... it was beautifully decorated by the junk crew... for the New Year Celebration!

Night view.... simply stunning!