The next morning we woke up, had another long, yummy breakfast and headed out to Halong Bay. Randy had thought it was an hour drive from Hanoi. While I wasn’t looking forward to being in the car again with a one and a three year old I figured an hour would be a piece of cake after our long 3.5 hour drive to Mai Chau. We got in the van and asked the other family that we were sharing our transport with (side note, interestingly you’re not allowed to rent cars in Vietnam, so we had to go through the hotels for all these drives to arrange transport) and they answered 4 hours….my jaw dropped. I definitely was not mentally prepared for another 8 hours round trip in the car. Well, too late to turn back now. So we just rolled with it. Adam luckily will watch the Ipad for infinity. Malcolm with a bit of help fell asleep and slept for most of the trip. We drove down with another family who had two young kids. Everyone was quiet in the car but about 20 minutes after we got on the boat these three were BFF’s and Adam basically adopted himself as their third sibling. It was pretty cute. The little girl loved Adam and watching these two hold hands and hug all day long tugged at my heartstrings
After our long car ride we finally got to Halong City and everyone was happy to get out of the car and stretch their legs. We watched boats until our our ride was ready to take us to our boat.
We took a little boat to our boat, called the Dragon Boat. For Adam, who is obsessed with Dragons this was the perfect boat.
We went to see our awesome room and then it was off to a yummy ten course lunch.
Adam has a new found love of chopsticks and is actually not half bad at using them.
Here is Adam’s ‘I’m angry face’ and this is when chopsticks are used for evil. I think we were past our nap time and Adam wanted to spend all of lunch playing with his new friends so he scowled for a bit. It’s pretty hard sometimes not to laugh at his ‘I’m Angry’ face.
After lunch Adam was able to explore every single inch of the boat with his new friends and play to his little hearts content.
Look who wanted to play too.
As the boat left Halong City and started driving around the bay we were suddenly surrounded by beautiful limestone islands.
The translation of Halong is ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’, and legend claims the islands of Halong Bay were created by a great dragon from the mountains. As it charged towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses. When it finally plunged into the sea, the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles visible. This story exemplifies what I love the most about Vietnam, a deep, interesting culture that the people are so proud of and take care of. That and the amazing food are probably tied.
Halong Bay is such a beautiful little place and so peaceful. Even with two little peanuts tearing around the boat you can’t help but feel the beautiful calmness of this little corner of the world.
After lunch we walked around to take in the view and enjoy the boat.
These steep boat stairs were the cause of many many negotiations. Adam’s two new bff’s were older than him and they could go up and down alone but Adam needed some help. We finally all compromised and let him and his new friend go down together.
We are in for it when this little guy can walk too. I think he is going to be just as determined as Adam if not more so! But for now I’m going to enjoy having his close to me.
After exploring the boat it was time for a trip to see the Bay up close on a little boat. Adam would ONLY sit next to his friend. Let me tell you, this boy is going to be a loyal boyfriend.
We had to pry him away from his girlfriend for a quick family pic. Ok, there may have been a bribe of candy involved.
Then it was back to his girlfriend.
At least their first date had a romantic setting.
Then it was home for a yummy meal. The best part of this meal was that halfway through going on no nap this little guy fell asleep.
Then to make the night perfect this little peanut fell asleep too! This was the only meal that we had the whole trip where they were both asleep and content. Something about being away at sea knocked them out and Randy and I were able to enjoy the rest of dinner and our wine in peace out on the deck under the stars. It was romantic even with a one year old on the eve of his first birthday strapped to my chest.
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