Arrived at the harbor and got on a smaller cruising boat with a new group of tourists from Canada, U.S., Italy, Barcelona, Belgium, France, and England, which included an older middle aged couple! The small boat would take us out to an island where we would spend the night in a house where a Vietnamese family lives and the tour company rents 6 rooms for tourists.
The scenery in Ha Long is more majestic, but Bai Tu Long is a nicer overall experience because there are almost no other tourist boats, just a few speed boat jitneys or ferry type boats for the locals, both tourists and residents, and almost no debris in the water. Whereas no one lives on any islands in Ha Long Bay any more, people still live on a few islands in Bai Tu Long. There are lots of oyster farms spread out over the bay. We stopped to kayak around a couple islands and there were no other people around. Some people swam by jumping off the boat, including Kelsey, and our tour guide was on the lookout from the boat to tell the swimmers where the jellyfish were. Swimming is allowed here we assume because it is less polluted and has less boats. You are not allowed to sleep on a boat in this bay. Which is why we headed to Quan Lan island. We took a tuktuk ride to our homestay. At dinner we learned how to make Vietnamese fried spring rolls, chopping and shredding vegetables, cutting rice noodles and then rolling the filling in rice paper. Good dinner family style again and I am getting better at chopsticks because I have no other choice. :)
Kelsey and I walked around the village a little, saw a temple and a square where the morning market is held and that night had some kind of social food event going on. All the houses, shops and buildings were open to the air, people sat outside eating, talking and checking their cell phones. We found our way back to the house. Kelsey pulled her mosquito net around her when we went to bed.
Got up and had breakfast the next morning at 7:00 - Swedish pancakes! Very tasty even just with raw sugar. Then we grabbed a bike for our 12 km ride across the island to where our boat was waiting. It was cloudy for a while, then sunny and almost unbearably hot as we cycled up very slight hills. A few minutes short of the harbor we stopped to swim at a beautiful beach we had all to ourselves, and Kelsey and I stayed in the water until we were all waved in that it was time to go.
We spent most of the ride back sitting on the side of the boat, feet over the water, through the serene waters to the harbor. Now we are in a van back for the 5 hour drive back to Hanoi. Staying at a hotel one night and another adventure tomorrow into the countryside, and apparently spending the night in a home with no AC...
The scenery in Ha Long is more majestic, but Bai Tu Long is a nicer overall experience because there are almost no other tourist boats, just a few speed boat jitneys or ferry type boats for the locals, both tourists and residents, and almost no debris in the water. Whereas no one lives on any islands in Ha Long Bay any more, people still live on a few islands in Bai Tu Long. There are lots of oyster farms spread out over the bay. We stopped to kayak around a couple islands and there were no other people around. Some people swam by jumping off the boat, including Kelsey, and our tour guide was on the lookout from the boat to tell the swimmers where the jellyfish were. Swimming is allowed here we assume because it is less polluted and has less boats. You are not allowed to sleep on a boat in this bay. Which is why we headed to Quan Lan island. We took a tuktuk ride to our homestay. At dinner we learned how to make Vietnamese fried spring rolls, chopping and shredding vegetables, cutting rice noodles and then rolling the filling in rice paper. Good dinner family style again and I am getting better at chopsticks because I have no other choice. :)
Kelsey and I walked around the village a little, saw a temple and a square where the morning market is held and that night had some kind of social food event going on. All the houses, shops and buildings were open to the air, people sat outside eating, talking and checking their cell phones. We found our way back to the house. Kelsey pulled her mosquito net around her when we went to bed.
Got up and had breakfast the next morning at 7:00 - Swedish pancakes! Very tasty even just with raw sugar. Then we grabbed a bike for our 12 km ride across the island to where our boat was waiting. It was cloudy for a while, then sunny and almost unbearably hot as we cycled up very slight hills. A few minutes short of the harbor we stopped to swim at a beautiful beach we had all to ourselves, and Kelsey and I stayed in the water until we were all waved in that it was time to go.
We spent most of the ride back sitting on the side of the boat, feet over the water, through the serene waters to the harbor. Now we are in a van back for the 5 hour drive back to Hanoi. Staying at a hotel one night and another adventure tomorrow into the countryside, and apparently spending the night in a home with no AC...
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