Yet another early wake up, as at 6:30 there was a Tai Chi class on the sun deck with our Tai Chi Master Kent. It was a great way to start the day. Plus it was a great way to stretch our muscle from yesterday’s kayaking.
Starting early and the Tai Chi definitely made us hungry and luckily the crew set out a breakfast buffet that we dug into with gusto.
After breakfast we had an excursion to a cave on one of the islands. There we also learnt about the legend of how Ha Long bay was formed. Ha means descending/arriving and Long means Dragon. Apparently the gods sent a dragon down to protect Vietnam from an invasion. This dragon started spitting jewels and jade, and it was the jewels that formed the rocks in front of the invading shipping causing them to sink.
As the boat slowly returned to Ha Long, we did our schooling and relaxed. After an early lunch we disembarked and got picked up to go to Ninh Binh. It was a long 3 hr drink through some interesting scenery. We got to stop by the Temples of Dinh and Le in Hoba Lu, Vietnam’s capital from 923 to 1009. It was an interesting history lesson full of intrigue, fighting, murder between brothers, assassinations and a haemorrhoid king in Vietnam’s colourful history.
We eventually got to our hotel and decided to relax for the rest of the evening, the girls were super excited to go swimming in the pool of course! We also decided to have our dinner at the hotel. This, in retrospect, was not our best decision as it took over an hour to get our first dish and then another hour for all the remaining dishes to arrive, with our starter arriving last.
But at lest we filled our bellies and could head to bed. Tomorrow we plan to explore the local area on bike and by boat. It should be lots of fun!
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