Halong Bay

March 28th Days left: 32
Today we went out on a boat to see Halong Bay. There is a lot of mist floating around everywhere, engulfing the large rocky islands, with all their plant life, enshrouding them in a blanket of cloud.
We stopped at one of these islands to see a cave. It was very big. The group's guide pointed out some interesting rock formations, like a cannon, an elephant, tiger, reclining lady (I thought it looked more like a giant crocodile head in combination with the rock above it) and a woman Buddha praying. The whole cave was 3 km from start to finish (ed. note: this is what the guide said, but that was hogwash).
Then we got to go kayaking around the ocean amongst the islands and through the mist for 40 minutes. I saw a tree that looked like a green puffball on a stick. The scenery is beautiful. Oh, I forgot to write this before and just remembered that we had an interesting food for lunch today. Squid! Squid, squid, squid, squid. It tasted a bit like shrimp. They looked like little octopus.
After kayaking, we had supper (lunch was as soon as we got on the boat) of chicken, fish, french fries, pork salad, lettuce/spinach things, and part apple part pear fruit for dessert. Then we went to bed.

March 31st Days left: 29
We are back in Hanoi again. We had to get a different hotel than last time but we now are staying in one with free internet as well. Also, I have a secret project that is progressing smoothly without any major problems.

Later the same day

Today we saw the Ambassador's Pagoda. There were three statues inside a big one in the middle and two smaller ones on either side. They looked like buddhas but we are not sure if they actually are. They all had a shiny gold covering.
The interior and exterior decoration was mostly red and gold. There were long wooden panels hung on the four sides of each pillar and around the doors. Each one had a red background and gold Chinese lettering in a single column. Above the doorways were plaques of wood, cut to look like cloth scrolls. These too had a red background and gold lettering. Underneath each of them was a weird gold dragon-like face.
Outside on the front the steps went from one side of the building to the other. On the steps, exactly in the middle, was a bird bath sort of thing with a tree growing in it. There was lots of water too, and in the water were two little fish and two little turtles with shells about two inches across. They would come up for air and sit at the water's surface but if we moved even a little bit they would zip around and swim away.
There were two small buildings outside that were too small to stand in made of stone, with fires burning inside them. The fires consisted of paper and nothing else.


Jonas