Our home in Halong Bay

One of the advantages of taking a tour was that we got a great boat for our two-day trip in Halong Bay. I've heard horror stories about rats and bad food. Our boat was clean and nice and the food was incredible. Seriously, the chef outdid himself. I'm planning a separate post about food because it was that worthy.

On the way from Hanoi to Halong Bay (and back) we stopped at a rest area which serves as a place of employment for disabled Vietnamese. They make clothing, artwork and sculptures of all sizes. The worldwide shipping rates for even giant statues were very reasonable, but I couldn't afford anything I liked.

Once we arrived at the bay, we boarded the tender which was to take us to our home for the next two days. 

I found it ironic that life jackets were mandatory every time we set foot on the tender, but in the two days we were on board the boat, we weren't once told where the life jackets were stored or what to do in case of an emergency.

 Bye bye, mainland.

Hello, sea!

Approaching our boat. There were three levels: the bottom with cabins, the engine room and the kitchen, the main level with a dining room and bar, plus a few cabins, and the upper sundeck.

Each cabin had beds, a closet, bathroom with shower and an AC unit.

The dining room where we ate our meals.

The sundeck. Which you can see has a covered area where everyone seema to be hiding out.

This may have been the only five minutes I was out in the sun and not hiding from it.

The tender stayed latched to the side of the boat when we weren't riding it around. Basically the boat went out deep into the bay, surrounded by amazing rock formations, and set anchor. From there we took the tender on excursions around the bay.

Kind of scary way from the dining area to my cabin. Don't fall down the stairs or trip stepping over that rope in the middle, because there's nothing more than a rope between you and the water!

Enjoying the views and the breeze from the sundeck.