With our snorkeling tour ticket in hand ($13.00 each),
we headed over to the nearby cafe to have some breakfast before boarding the boat!
I'm telling you, banana pancakes are the way to go around these parts! These were $2.00 each!
Right at 8:30am, our tour guide showed up at our hostel to tell us it was time to board the bus!
After picking up some other people, we made it to the local harbor and boarded our boat!
The ride out to the islands took about 45 minutes. We were all eager to get in the water, and cool off, but enjoyed the scenery along the way!
There were some other tour boats floating alongside ours throughout the day... It's the nature of the beast when you're in a touristy area of any country!
This was our boat driver...
who ALSO doubled as our cook! He would literally leave the boat's steering wheel, get off his seat, and start cooking with his back to the front of the boat! It made me a bit nervous at first, but realized these guys do this everyday! They know what's safe and what's not...
Our first stop was here, off the shores of this island. The water was turquoise and beautiful!
Aaron was the very first person to get in! This picturue of him giving the thumbs up was before he put his head under the water and realized he was SURROUNDED by millions of jellyfish! Eeek! We all jumped in after him, and within minutes I heard the screams of quite a few people saying they'd been stung by jellyfish! I stuck my head back under the water and began to look towards the surface of the water... not down at the bottom, and sure enough! There they were... floating all around me! They were between the size of a corn kernel and a baseball, and you couldn't help but swim right through them! I could feel mystelf getting stung and I sawm back to the boat! When I got out, I realized I'd been stung on my butt and my boobs, but nothing too serious! They just stung a bit. Apparently these Vietnamese jellyfish like people's private parts!
After everyone got out of the boat, the tour guide said we'd move the boat to another location and that HE would jump in FIRST to let us all know if there were jellyfish! Good idea, in theory. But, the people here don't always have your best interest in mind! I'm pretty sure he yelled, "There are no jelly fish here! Come on in!" before his feet even touched the water!
So, once again, we got in! This time, I was in for about 2 minutes and couldn't enjoy the snorkeling, because I was constantly focused on the surface of the water where the jellyfish were floating! I got stung AGAIN, and that was enough for me! I decided to lounge here, on the top of the boat instead! :)
Aaron was like a monkey, climbing all over the sides of the boat!
Check out these two teeny tiny houses, built on stilts, into the hillside.
We were all pretty bumbed about all the jellyfish, and not being able to snorkel on our "All Day Snorkeling Trip!" Luckily, there was a reedeming factor to our trip! It was these two! Ulyses is originally from MExico, and Rebecca is from Australia! They met 7 years ago while she was on a medical trip in Mexico. She's a general practitioner doctor. They fell in love, and Ulyses moved to Australia to be with her! They were traveling Vietnam for 3 weeks and had just got engaged a couple days ago! We spent the whole day with them, laughing, and sharing travel stories!
The weather was stunning all day long! Couldn't have asked for a better day to be out on the ocean!
Just in case you were wondering, this is what the Vietnam flag looks like! This little guy was waving in the wind all afternoon!
Around 12:00, the guide came up to the top of the boat and called us all in for lunch! I knew there would be lunch on the boat, but I WAS NOT EXPECTING A FEAST! You should have seen everyone's eyes when we walked downstairs and saw that all of this had been prepared - and had been cooked on the boat, by ONE MAN! AMAZING!
Someone has to do it... glad it wasn't me!
After lunch, the boat stopped at one more "great snorkeling spot!" We figured, at this point, it would be just as infested with jellyfish as the last two, and opted to stay onboard the boat. The two guides both jumped in and were yelling! "There are jellyfish here, and I'm getting stung! Come on in!" haha!
The guides passed around plates full of local fruit, which was probably the highlight of my trip! If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for fruit! Check out this bright green banana! Rebecca and I thought it was weird that they were passing around not yet ripe bananas, but sure enough, it was ready to eat!
One our way back to town, the guide pointed over at this fishing village and told us that the families here have anywhere from 7-10 children! They believe that the more children you have, the luckier you are! Then he twirled his finger around his ear, motioning that they were crazy! He said foreigners come over and deliver condoms sometimes, but they either toss them or blow them up like balloons! Hey, to each his own, I guess! I personally would rather opt for a max of 3 kiddos! That's enough for me!
The guide also told us that the children here only go to elementary school on this island, ending their educational career at the end of 5th grade! If they're outrageously smart, their parents may send them to the mainland for more schooling, but this sn't usually the case. These girls were so excited to see people coming by on a boat, and were waving their arms all around!
Aaron, Me, Rebecca, and Ulyses towards the end of the trip.
We got back to our hostel around 3:30pm, and went right online to find a flight to Hanoi for tomorrow, and luckily we were able to book one for $115.00. If we hadn't waited to so long, we would have paid around $50.00, but we didn't want to book in advance! We like being able to stay places if we like them, or head out if we don't. When everything is pre-booked, you can't really do that! Anyhow, we got lucky with the flights being available!
After booking our tickets, we headed out, into the town, in search of some dinner! I love the way people set up little tables and chairs on the sidwalks and play board games!
We landed here, at a fancy little restaurant on the beach! Sometimes it's nice to treat yourself to something fancy, right?! In this case, Aaron treated me! Thank you A!
We lounged here at this cushioned 1/2 circle table on the patio for about 45 minutes, until the storm rolled in and we had to move into a covered area of the patio! The lighting was stunning, and the rain made everything kinda glisten a bit!
After dinner, we splurged on a brownie and ice cream! Great choice!
There's something so romantic about being in a fairly secluded place, while the rain falls, the waves crash nearby, the thunder crashes, the lighting strikes, the table is lit by a candle, and the lights from the island across the way are twinkling over the ocean... oh, and I have a great guy to share it with! I loved this place!
We walked back to the hostel in the rain, and Aaron found this baby gecko crawling on the wall! He's what I like to call the gecko whisperer! This little guy loved him!
Tomorrow, we'll be headed to Hanoi to catch a night train to Sapa, a mountain village near the north of Vietnam! I made this map for any of you who aren't familiar with Vietnam, or the places we've been traveling! The red stars are the places we've already been on this trip! The blue are where we're headed!
My guess is that there probably won't be internet in Sapa, or in Halong Bay, where we're headed after that... so I may be away for 5-6 days! Don't worry though, Aaron and I are fine and dandy over here, just enjoying our vaca in Asia!
