Ha Long is a bay off the coast, roughly due east of Hanoi.

It is usually foggy, or at least hazy, which lends a bit of mystery to all the karst formations.

We took a three day tour on the bay. On our first day and night, we we stayed on this boat.

This is what we did most of the time.

While the boat chugs along, ones primary recourse is to sit back and watch the crazy rock formations drift by.

Plenty of other tour boats are doing the exact same thing -- chugging along at an idle pace.

Sarah's feet

Luckily, our boat was full of cool people.

Up left are Henrik and Johanna, from Sweden.  Down left are Eldad from Israel and Dianne from Colombia.  Our tour guide Ha is on the right.

Hours of slow sailing.  We hung out and talked, pretty much all day.

Field Trip

Our boat stopped at one of the massive caves in the area.  None of my pictures turned out well, but the main cave was enormous.  As big as a college basketball arena.

This formation in the roof looks like a partial skull to me.

Our bedroom on the boat was small, but serviceable.

Rice delivery

Henrik and Johanna

Matt and Sarah

Hard to express just how bad my camera is at capturing landscape scenery.

All the Ha Long Bay brochures feature brilliant blue sky and crystal clear pictures.  Feh.