Day 7-8: Halong Bay (Thursday, July 3 - Friday, July 4)

Thursday morning we took off from the Sheraton Hanoi about 8:30am for the three hour drive to Halong Bay and our lovely fake junk, the Halong Ginger. The Ginger is definitely a luxury option for Halong Bay. There are lots of day trips from Hanoi (though that seemed a tad rushed to us, or at least doing six hours in the car on one day didn't sound like fun), and there are lots of options for overnight trips, too. Some boats might have more of an adventure/backpacker spirit to them... the Ginger was straight up luxe. We set "sail" and then had lunch in the dining room. Soon, we came to our first stop, Dao Soi Sim - a small island with a beach for swimming and steps halfway up the island to a higher view. We climbed to the top and then cooled off in the bay before heading back to the Ginger. After another hour of "sailing" we made it to a small fishing village, which we explored on the smaller boat we were towing. The village was full of "pirates"... little kids on row boats that would come and attach to our boat to try and sell us shells and other goodies. Very cute. After a bit of cruising around the village and one of the islands, we were back to the Ginger and it was swimming time. Matt was game and leapt into the water from the top deck... Viv and Amanda leapt in too (from the small boat).

Everyone got cleaned up for dinner (up on the top deck), which was a great buffet of several great soups, grilled meats and seafood, and a variety of salads. After dinner, we tried hard to stay up by playing Scrabble (excellent find aboard the boat). Matt eventually won, but it was a closely fought game - and everyone clearly wanted to be asleep.

Day 2 on the Ginger had us exploring Surprise Cave - truly spectacular. It was amazing to see the size and diversity of the cave. (Thanks to Amanda for the picture... our battery died on the first day of the cruise). Afterwards, we were dropped off back ashore, and then it was another three hour drive back the the Sheraton Hanoi. I think our only complaint about the Halong Ginger was that even with a private driver to take us back to Hanoi, we got stuck stopping in the tourist pit stop full of overpriced souvenirs - in both directions!

Once we arrived at the Sheraton, Viv and Amanda hit the streets to get a little massage in at the QT Spa (decently comfy environment, big city prices) before dinner while Matt snoozed.