Halong,Bay--The,Most,Beautiful travel,insurance Halong Bay--The Most Beautiful Place on Earth

Like any American, traveling occasionally is just what I love doing and I bet you share the same stuff with me. But traveling does not mean that you would be safe. Escaping from our job and other stressful activities is just something that w Torres del Paine is among the biggest of Chile’s national parks, occupying almost 600,000 acres (242,000 ha) of land in the south on the border with Argentina. It is also among the most important, receiving a significant proportion of domes

Halong kayaking Justgot back from Halong Bay this afternoon and it was absolutelybreathtakingly beautiful--even more than I expected. We left at around8am from the hostel and were picked up by Active travel Vietnam _ thetour company that we'd booked with. We picked up 6 others, a Scottishcouple living in Malaysia and a pair of couples from Spain. We thendeparted for Halong Bay, about a 3 and 1/2 hour drive. We also then metour tour guide Ngoan, a slim young woman who spoke pretty good English.She was no Wasa though! She briefed us on Hanoi and Halong Bay historyand then told us about where to go in Hanoi to find good dog and catmeat. (We weren't too interested). And she told us about how Vietnamesepeople like to string up live cobras from trees, skin them, and thendrink their blood while it's still hot from the dangling end, like somekind of bizarre tribal beer bong. Yummy. About halfway through the trip and after a much needed nap, we stoppedfor a break at a place that sold local handicrafts made by handicappedchildren. I bought a very cool picture done in embroidery of aVietnamese woman carrying some mangos on those balancy things thatBlake carried in the infamous pineapple fiasco. I talked the price downfrom $68 to $58 which was fair especially because as the 4 foot tallsalesman kept reminding me 'made by handicap' children'. no word if thekids get any of the profit though. After the break we piled back into the van and about an hour later wearrived in Halong Bay City. We jumped out and headed straight to ourboat, the Halong Bay Dream and man was it ever. It was soooo nice. Anew boat with space for 14 and just beautiful on the inside. Lauren andI shared a room with two big windows (for a boat) and Blake got his ownroom since there were just 9 of us total. After we set down ourbelongings, we headed up to the main deck to the open dining area forour seafood lunch. And it was incredible. They just kept bringing outdish after dish! We had the freshed squid salad, huge shrimp, lovelyvegetables, rice, noodles, a whole grilled fish, fruit... the food justdidn't stop coming! Fully stuffed to the gills, we slathered on some sunscreen, threw onour bathing suits and went up to the top deck. By then we were reallygetting out into the bay amidst the nearly 2000 islands there and itwas incredibly beautiful. The islands are all made out of limestonefrom decayed oysters, clams, etc from the past 350 million years thatgrew to form a mountain range because of the pacific rim tetonic platesshifting. Eventually the mountain range was eroded by the water and theislands formed. Now they are all protected by Unesco which is fortunatebecause the only one that can be inhabited is the national park on CatBa island. Just beautiful! Sunset on Indochina Sails After sunning ourselves we then docked briefly to visit the AmazingCave which is the biggest of the 8 or so caves that have beendiscovered so far in Halong Bay. And it really was amazing. Especiallyinteresting though were the trashcans inside in the shape of dolphinsand penguins which gave the weird sensation that we were at anamusement park of sorts. From the cave, we moved onwardto an island with a lookout pagoda at the very top. One 10 minute veryvertical climb later we were super sweaty but enjoying the wonderfulview. Blake showed me how to do a stitch assist too on my camera so Ithink I should be able to join several of the photos together to make anice panoramic. Next, we returned to the boat and then jumped off fromthe top of the boat into the water. I was quite scared at first seeingas I'd really never done a high dive before, but it was worth it andthen it was great! And the water was wonderful, just warm enough to beenjoyable but not so warm that you feel like the person next to youjust 'relieved' themselves in the water. After the swim we towelled off and then were fed another enormous anddelicious seafood dinner. Dinner was followed by a great conversationwith the Scottish couple that had been living in Malaysia the past 2years, a little bit of World Cup viewing, and then Blake and I layingout on the top deck to look at the stars. It was the perfect day and wedidn't go to sleep until after midnight when we pried ourselves awayfrom the night sky. The next morning, Blake woke me up early to have a look at the sunrise,but at 5:15 am it was already up. So we went back to bed and then gotback up in time for a 7am breakfast (also way too much food). Breakfastwas followed by kayaking which was incredibly fun. We paddled aroundfor about an hour and a half, with 2 people in each kayak. Lauren and Ipaddled together, and with her excellent instruction I eventually gotthe hang of it. It was difficult though because even though the waterwas pretty calm, the current was really strong. We all paddled togetherinto these beautiful lagoons by Cat Ba island which was just such apeaceful experience (aside from the aching arms) that made me feel likewe were in the movie "the beach" (which I am appropriately reading atthe moment). After kayaking, Lauren and I had another swim, then it was time to packour bags... but not without yet another inordinately huge seafood mealthat we could hardly finish! It really was the perfect get away. Andamazingly enough, it only costs $2000 to rent out the boat per week,including food. So I'm thinking, grab a group of 14 and come backsometime in the future for some R&R. Well I'm back in Hanoi though, wearing my new Halong Bay pearl necklace(they do a lot of pearls there) and getting very excited abouttomorrow's trips to Hanoi's museums and then the following day at Chinabeach between Da Nang and Hoi An! It's going to be great! Source: SMU Here is your chance to experience on Halong Bay: The Indochina Sails Email: [email protected], http://www.indochinasails.com/ More cruises on Halong Bay - Active Travel Shop, #31, Alley 4, Dang Van Ngu street, Hanoi, Vietnam Adventure tours on Vietnam - Active Travel Vietnam Article Tags: Active Travel