Ha Long Bay

After a four hour long car drive from Hanoi we came to Ha Long City and our boat, a 23 meter long Junk, Du Tieu Chuan. The boat has two cabins, a dining room, a big sundeck and a crew of five + guide,  we have it all to ourselves.  The weather is now a lot colder, a round 15 degreed C and windy.

Ha Long Bay has 1969 small pinnacle islands, and in between them the local people live on floating houses. About 2500 people live out here in 7 small villages, the biggest one with 150 families. We visited one of the villages, here we got to see their local floating school. People out here live a very hard life, and most of them have never gone to school. A family make their living from fishing and tourism, and can make up to 100 usd a month.

We have also been kayaking and swimming, the sea is still warm even if the weather has gotten cooler. Since we have our one chef on board the food is amazing, I think we counted 7 different dishes for dinner.  Ha Long Bay is on the world heritage list and it is understandable……very beautiful. 

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Hanoi

We are now in Hanoi and getting ready for a long train trip to Beijing. Here we stay in the middle of the old quarter, a very busy part of the city.After two days in Hanoi traffic we are starting to get the hang of crossing the streets here, running zigzag in between a million motorbikes and cars. Traffic goes everywhere even on the sidewalk. People in Hanoi seems to live on the street, chatting, cooking, playing games and drinking their coffee. Last night we saw the famous water puppet show, the kids loved it!!!!!