Canada was a tour in Halong Bay, Vietnam. It was a good thing we did it ahead of time, because I don't think we would have splurged on such a tour if we had waited until we got here. However, having said that, it sure was nice to treat ourselves to something way above what has become standard for us.
We took a bus from Hanoi to Halong Bay, which took about 3 hours. This is a photo of our boat as we headed out from the pier.
We had a lovely lunch on board, while we headed to our first stop on Titop Island. The pagoda on top was our destination after climbing 427 steps to get there.
It was a bit overcast today, but that was just as well for the climb. It was hot enough without having to deal with blazing sun as well. And even with the overcast conditions, the views from the top of the hill were awesome.
Our next stop was in a bay where we had the option of kayaking or going to a floating village for a look. Even though the kids and I had had quite a tiring experience kayaking on the Mekong, we decided to give it another go. We really were glad that we did. There was no current and the paddling was as leisurely as it comes.
We paddled through a cave into a lovely, clear pool on the other side. There were suppose to be bats in the caves, but we didn't see any. Likely just as well.
As you can see, Kelly really made the paddle a leisurely one. Given there was no current to deal with, Campbell didn't mind at all.
We went through one more longer cave that also led to a lovely quiet spot where we searched for monkeys. Of course, when we didn't see any, they informed us that they have only seen monkeys twice in the past year. It was still a very nice paddle. It was also a perfect way to end the afternoon. We got back to the boat about 5:30 and had some time to relax before dinner. Our dinner was quite the galant event, which everyone enjoyed. After dinner, a number of us gathered on the poop deck just to enjoy the evening. The stars were brilliant and the company was great. The staff of the boat managed to get us all to try our luck at squid fishing off the boat. Probably a good thing that none of us managed to catch anything. By 11:00 we reluctantly called it a night.
The next morning was glorious. The skies had cleared and it proved to be a spectacular day. We started our morning at 6:30 with tai chi on the deck. I think our instructor found us more entertaining than skilled!! However, he was very patient and we felt great once we were done.
We actually got the sails up this morning and went for a little jaunt to some caves before our breakfast. 
It is very difficult to capture the enormity and breath-taking beauty of the caves on film. It actually reminded all of us of a Disney Studio. We hiked through the caves for about an hour before coming back out into daylight.
And when we did emerge from the caves, we felt like we were in the middle of rush hour. We sure weren't the only tour on the bay and the caves were a hot spot that morning.
Campbell got in a bit of reading time on deck before breakfast was served.
We had a fabulous buffet breakfast that kept us going right up to dinner. We just had to keep telling ourselves not to get really comfy with the whole 1st class thing as it won't last long. But it was very enjoyable while it did.
Kelly was happy to spend the last few hours on the boat soaking up some sun on the deck. We were sad to end our tour and take the 3 hour bus back to Hanoi, but the end of one thing leads to the next and we're off to Beijing tomorrow to continue our travels.
