Halong Bay

Little better this am, wakeup call at 6:30. Short tour because the ship leaves at 1pm for the next port.
Quick bus ride to the boat landing to get on our junk. Bob says it not a real junk, not sure when he became a junk expert. Anyway, ours was one of many.

 Local families with small children come alongside the boat and the children jump from their small boat to ours and hang off the side, stick their heads in the windows and try to sell bananas. We were warned and asked not to react to them because it is dangerous and the hope is that if the tourists ignore them they will stop putting the children in danger and send them to school where they belong. Do you know how hard it is to ignore someone who jumps on your boat and sticks their head in the window? You probably don't....it's hard.
Sailed in Halong Bay (Bay of the Descending Dragon) which became a cultural heritage site in 1994. Jo-Anne thinks we should make a plan to visit all the cultural heritage sites in the world. I like it. It was cool and so damp it was like rain when it wasn't raining. There was an inside to the boat but was very cold to go out and take pictures. It was beautiful though.

We sailed through a floating village where they actually have a school (floating) for the 16 children that live there. I think they said total 80 people,. They don't have to pay taxes.

We stopped at an island with a huge grotto, hang dau Go. Difference between a grotto and a cave? Cave has only one opening. Grotto has more than one and usually has water. Up a ton of stairs to get in, lots of stairs inside and a treacherous climb down stone stairs of all different sizes. Then a final leap to the boat (felt that far) and back to land.
Vietnam has a two child policy unless you live in the country, then three. They want boys as badly as the Chinese do, and like the Chinese many generations live together in one house, they build these tall thin (one room wide) homes where each generation has a floor.