Pangea - Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Our trip to Ha Long Bay was amazing. We immediately fell in love with our cute little tour guide, Thao, who accompanied us on the drive from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. She had the highest voice, biggest smile, and sweetest personality ever known to mankind. She even sang us a few traditional Vietnamese songs along the way.

When we arrived at the port we switched tour guides (Thien replaced Thao) and we picked up a loud and funny French woman, a charming young Brit, and a lovely Danish couple. We had so much fun with them. Somewhere along the way the French woman decided she was going to award points to each country when they said something funny, sang an amazing song, or jumped in the water. It made for a good time!

Our ride through Ha Long Bay was so beautiful. We were mesmerized as we traveled through the 3000ish limestone cliff islands. We stopped and got onto a smaller row boat and explored a small fishing village. The children were playing in boats instead of backyards and the teenagers were rowing boats with their feet! It was so fun to observe. Afterwards, we got back on the boat and headed to the place we were going to dock for the night. Once we docked, out in the middle of the bay, we jumped in the water for a quick swim. Matt was even brave enough to jump off the top of the boat. That is where the USA picked up their first point from the French woman!

At dinner we decided to join the two dinner tables together to unite the countries -- we called it Pangea. Our boat was tied up to another boat full of Germans. We attempted to make friends with them but they wanted none of that....so we just left them to their boring selfs. We had a fun time talking to everyone on our boat. Everyone had such an interesting story to tell. It was Thien's birthday so each country sang her a special birthday song. The discussion got funnier and funnier as the night went on and as they downed four bottles of wine and a bottle of whiskey. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time! I think they even had a fun time with three sober Mormons.

The next morning we ate breakfast and cruised back to the port. We stopped at a restaurant for our last meal with our fun little group. We said our goodbyes and each headed off to different Vietnam adventures! We hope we cross paths again in the future.