Friday, Feb 3 – We arrived at 6 am and took on a pilot. The weather was somewhat foggy and drizzly. This bay is a UNESCO heritage site because of its unique geography. It is an archipelago of island in a bay. The islands are actually limestone rock formations that have eroded over time into tall pillars of stone. There are caves and bridges carved out of many. At the head of the bay is a major port city that serves North Viet Nam, about 4 hours from Hanoi. Among the islands are floating fishing villages where fishermen and their families live full time on boats and rafts with small huts on them, living off the water, trading fish for other commodities, and rarely touching land. The children are educated through seconday school by teachers who come out to them for 5 days each week. The scenery is really amazing and misty weather makes the area seem even more mysterious. Tourism is a big industry here. We took a tour on a junk built just for tours of the bay which ended up in a floating village where we transferred to double kayaks. We were in a party of 12 kayaks. We paddled through opinings into lagoons within the limestone rock formations and around the several of them. A great way to see the islands and the fishing culture. We are also appreciating the local perspective of their history and especially the American Viet Nam War. They feel the war was about the reunification of Viet Nam and independence from other nations such as France and USA. We thought it was a war to stop the spread of Communism. Now peace seems to reign and all is well and rapidly improving economically. Hard to believe the war was 50 years ago.
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