Beautiful and relaxing Halong Bay

Good Morning Vietnam!  This is Phu's greeting to us every day (always in the morning, but really anytime).  We're off to Halong Bay, NE of Hanoi, a gorgeous World Heritage site of unique limestone formations in a beautiful bay off the NE coast of Vietnam.  We head out in our small private bus and stop at a Pottery factory on the way.  We get to Halong Bay, buy some more bottled water and take a small boat out to our "floating hotel" for the night.  We motor into Halong Bay during the day; relaxing in the beautiful breeze on deck (a brief respite from the heat and humidity) stop at a cave system for a tour,  have a great dinner on board, and get a demonstration of vegetable carving.  Then we motor back for the next part of our Vietnam journey.  We begin to learn the names of our fellow Intrepid Tour travelers and a bit of their backgrounds.  In terms of scenery and relaxation, this was a highlight (although the whole trip was amazing).

 Traffic leaving Hanoi

 School group at pottery factory

 They thought Donna was a beautiful famous actress (They got the beautiful part down)

 heading our to our "floating hotel"

 Betsy, Amber and Donna