Descending Dragon Bay

Ha Long means “descending dragon” because there is a Vienamese myth that a dragon mom and her babies came down to earth and made huge rock karsts (like mountains) in the sea to protect Vietnam from intruders. We visited Ha Long Bay on a small ship and cruised through the islands. During our visit, we kayaked, visited a pearl farm and walked through enormous caves. Four boys from Iceland had a drone that they brought on their trip to get footage around the world and I got to see them launch and fly it off our boat. We slept on the boat the first night and the second night we stayed in a bungalow on a private island.

At the pearl farm, I learned how oysters develop and give pearls. I volunteered to open one that had been underwater creating the pearl for 18 months. I got a good pearl out of it that will go into a piece of jewelry.

We went sea kayaking through caves over the water that opened into secret lakes. We saw monkeys, fishing villages and a waterside temple. The weather was cold so we didn’t do any swimming. I was sad about that, but we still got to do some pretty amazing things.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vietnam, but it’s been a wonderful country to explore. I hope we come back again when I’m older.