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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain
And so we did. After 4 glorious and chilled days in Hoi An, spent between the tailors' shops, the beach (a 4km bike ride) the many many cafes and bars, we arrived to the hectic bustle of Hanoi, and quickly skiped out of the city and set sail on a 2 day junk boat trip around Halong Bay. After the horror stories from other tourists about overcharged and overfilled boats we found "The Real Kangaroo Cafe" (thanks to Danny for the recommendation) and took the last 3 spaces on the next tour.
Halong Bay is an amazing place. Local legend has it that long ago, when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The people kept their land safe and formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth and decided to live here then. The place where Mother Dragon flew down was named Hạ Long, the place where the dragon children attended upon their mother was called Bai Tur Long island, and the place where the dragon children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island.
We had a great group, a beautiful boat, with enough beds for all of us (seemingly an issue for other tours), plenty of food (albeit fish) and stunning scenery. Unforuntately it rained pretty much the whole time but that added to the ambience and I have pretty much resigned myself to 5 weeks of bad weather and no suntan.
After several attempts to upload the photos I have officially given up for now, and even manage to delete the other Vietnam photos. But there are more at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121515&id=613391326&l=29830071fe . Tomorrow Jo and I head off to China (censored web access, so more photos could take some while) and Maria heads home to England. Its been a great two weeks and now its time for a new country and a new adventure, and I am sure, new challenges.
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