Merry Christmas!!! As I write this, Christmas Day is coming to a close in Hanoi, and it would be the early hours of Boxing Day in Brisbane. It’s been a great day with many similarities and plenty if differences to our Aussie Christmas.
Starting the day bright and early – same. Heading to the top deck for Tai Chi – different. Andrew, Alex and I headed up at 6:15 to join in the Tai Chi session overlooking Ha Long Bay. Having never done it before, we wall all surprised at the level of strength required, and how invigorating it was. Nevertheless, after a while Alex retreated to meditate, and Emma preferred working on her inner-calm in the cabin under the doona :). An enormous breakfast followed (same), but the requirement to get moving straight after breakfast was definitely different!
We motored from our moorings through the islands, past more villages and retailers in their boats. The familiar “you buy somethiiiing?” greeted us as soon as we stepped off the Paloma and on to the transfer boat – bizarre that you can buy Oreos, Pringles, Fanta and just about any other grocery item from a lady in a bamboo boat in the middle of nowhere. A whole new take on retailing!
We visited a site called “The Amazing Cave” this morning. This enormous cave is within one of the islands and lived up to it’s name. 100s if tourists flocked to the area to spend the morning wandering through 3 massive chambers formed by years of water passing over and through the rocks. It’s actually like something out of a movie scene!
As we were waiting for our transfer boat, we came across this lady selling fish from her boat. each basket held a different type of live seafood – fish, crabs, cuttlefish, squid… You name it! If you look carefully, you can even see a Stingray tied to the bottom left hand corner of her boat. Yup, another one chalked up to bizarre food offerings.
We then bid farewell to Ha Long bay. a truly magnificent part of the world, and a must see for anyone who considers coming to Vietnam. A pretty memorable spot to have spent Xmas 2012.
After lunch (too much food – same!) we hopped on the bus back to Hanoi, and off for a Christmas Dinner at one of the hotels. They did a pretty good job, but it’s just not Christmas without Plum pud and custard!
Overall, the girls have had a great day, despite the occasional musing about what Santa might have brought and what they’d be doing if they were in Brisbane. All concerns were fixed by a packet of M&Ms though – I’m going to remind them of that next Christmas!
Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!
Love M & the Bunch xxxx
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