(Sung to the tune of “Down by the Bay”)
Down by the bay,
Where the pearl farms grow,
Off of the boat,
I dare not go,
For if I do,
I’ll get stung by a jelly fish,
Have you ever seen a squid, not on my hook?
Down by the bay!
Ha Long Bay is one of the natural wonders of the world. It is a huge bay with almost 2000 rock islands everywhere and is a photographers’ paradise!
Our boat, the Imperial Legend, was really nice. It had two floors of cabins, a dining room, and a roof top terrace. I remember the last time we slept on a boat was on our cruise on the Mediterranean sea.
In the afternoon, we went kayaking which was a lot of fun because we were able to explore the area. The more we kayaked, the more we got lost in the scenery. This reminded me of home when we would always drive down to the lake and take turns kayaking… Kayaking is a great way to paddle without polluting!
After kayaking, we went to the Surprise Cave. It sure was full of surprises, like when all of the lights turned off! I am not even joking, the lights just suddenly turned off! Fortunately, everyone had their smart phones so we could light the way out.
Inside the cave, we could spot many different rock formations, like monkeys and dragons. Can you spot them?
It reminded me of the Avshalom cave we visited in Israel because we also were able to see different rock formations.
In the evening, we returned to the boat and enjoyed a delicious dinner. As you can see, the chefs made sure everything was fresh, and was beautifully presented.
When dinner was over, we decided to play some karaoke! We had a great time singing! Our choices included:
#1: Dancing Queen
#2: Thriller
#3: Sweet Caroline
#4: Summer Nights
The best part was that our cruise manager, Alex said that whoever scored 99 or 100 points, would get free drinks! We got 99 on Sweet Caroline, and 100 on Summer Nights so we got 2 free drinks! Mikhaila and I shared a delicious mango smoothie! Yum yum.
Later, we went squid fishing! It was a lot of fun, but we did not catch anything… Instead of squids, we saw a huge jellyfish. We already had an encounter with jellyfish in Tanzania and we did not want any more so we immediately changed our minds about swimming.
Although all of the above was a lot of fun, the most fun of all was meeting people from around the world. We met people from England, Canada, Germany, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Russia, America and more. Many people were also doing long term travel or just going on a vacation. It was fun listening to all of their stories.
We had a lot of fun together and even did a sunrise Tai Chi class on the top deck of our boat!
Over the last eight moths, we have learned that there are many Wonders of the World: New ones, Ancient ones and Natural ones. So far, we have visited three of the New ones: The Colosseum, Petra, and The Taj Mahal. Ha Long Bay was our first visit to a Natural Wonder of the World.
Stay tuned to hear what else we did on the cruise and what other wonders we see!
For more information on Wonders of the World, click on the link below:
Comments
8 responses to “Cruising the Bay”
Hi Zoe, Amanda and I loved Ha Long Bay when we were there. You’ve got some wonderful photos of the islands.
Scott
Hi!
I am glad you had a good time at Ha Long Bay! 🙂 Did you go on a cruise? if so, Ha Long was it? Ha ha!
Hi Zoe,
Beautiful photography! I like the rock formations of the monkey, dragons! I’m glad that all of you had your smart phones with you when the lights went out. This is a very interesting blog and I love your writing style. Love, Baba
Hi!
I iwas also glad that everyone had their smartphones because it was pitch black in that cave! 🙂
For the very first time I am disappointed!!! I would have liked a VIDEO of your family singing Karaoke!! That would have given me a serious giggle!!! The rest of this most recent adventure looked great! Good thing that you did not go after any jellyfish!
Hi!
Sorry, none of us could video tape becuse we were singing. 🙂 I guess we will just have to play karaoke again! 🙂
Hi, Zoe, this is a wonderful posting. when I saw the photos I thought what an enchanting place! I am glad I can come along because of your descriptions. The caves look magical and it’s great to see all the rock formations and identify the different characters. And of course, there has to be delicious food and lots of fun afterwards. This must have been an wondrous and fun filled cruise. Great to see all of you having a wonderful time. Gazillion XOXOXO’s
Hi!
We had a great time on the cruise! The food was tastey and the caves were awesome!!! It was especially fun doing Tai Chi! 🙂