The (other) Bay

Ha Long that is. If you aren't familiar with it, the name means "Descending Dragon" and it is filled with large limestone cliffs that rise seemingly out of nowhere. The water is a beautiful deep green, and there is definitely no place like it on earth. Well no place i know anyway. It is just stunning, and we have plied its gentle waters on a wooden ship powered by a motor but built to resemble the traditional fishing boats of the area, called Junks. Our boat yesterday was a piece of junk for sure, but I'll get to that later.

Today I write you direct from Cat Ba island in Ha Long bay and earlier a lady from Finland got bit by a monkey. No joke. It was pretty nuts, and it all happened really fast. So we went to this Monkey Island in the bay and climbed up some really pointy craggy rocks and we didn't see any monkeys until all of a sudden there were like 5 of em outta no where. The finnish lady was standing next to a big rock and two were on top of it and they sorta edged closer to her and she got all freaked out and then she screamed and one jumped and bit her. It was a very bizarre moment, and we had to throw rocks at the monkeys to scare them off. She was really shaken up and the cut was pretty deep and swollen around it, especially coming from such a small monkey. Just before that we took a nice happy group photo with all the people from our tour (TBA- to be attached), so you can see the before. I don't think it would be real sensitive of me to take a photo of her arm tho, so sadly no after shots. That was today's excitement, and we did some biking on a different island a little kayaking before the monkey fiasco. The biking was cool, but the bikes were too small and definitely from before the war, but what war? WWII??? Brakes and gears barely worked (if at all) but we didn't let it dampen our spirits. The Countryside was stunning, dense lush jungle on both sides of a fertile valley filled with rice fields and a quaint little village.
Our guide, who is an utter moron and has been lying to us, actually caved and agreed to set up kayaking and biking ( both of which were specified in the travel brochures) after a brief mutiny yesterday. We went from a dingy, poorly painted boat with only one chair opn the top to a much nicer one today, with padded benches and a lot more charm. The kayaks were fun, especially because of the incredible environment of the bay (photos to come). Our tour has not been what we expected, or paid for, but there have been highlights for sure, and theres no denying the scenery here. We are now just ready to head off to a small quiet beach, where yesterday we introduced a new concept to the locals: the frisbee. We'll see how they do today, they were quick learners in their first few tries, and were really excited to learn we would be back tomorrow. They didnt know a whole lot of English, and our Vietnamese is clearly a different dialect, but we agreed on "afternoon." Its now afternoon, so the bee and the beach are calling our names. More soon,

Dave