Back to Vietnam- HaLong Bay

Alright, there are several places i could show photos of, but the next two or three are just going to be dedicated to HaLong Bay, on the coast east of Hanoi a few hours. It is the coolest place I have been since coming to Asia. I really lucked out to get back to the US to be there and still get back to Vietnam for this.

So we cruised through this bay, of which the best description I can give is a submerged mountain range with a jungle on it - sort of. It is unique in my experiences. Our group of 6 had our own boat and we justfloated quietly for about 5 hours. The water was glass - think ideal waterskiing conditions, no clouds in the sky. I reckon I took about 200 photos or something stupid like that. I am hoping 4 can capture how amazing it is, but I doubt it. It goes on for a while, and considering there were so many boats out there, you only see a few. Then, later in the evening, the boat stopped and we were given the chance to swim in the bay. Now, as much as I wondered if there were any sharks in this mountain range, all we saw were a few massive jelly fish as we cruised along. No incidents there. Better yet, we were aloud to jump off the boat, which was maybe 5 meters up. Such fun. The salt water/diesel mix was probably not the healthiest, though. Then we cruised on as the sun set and spent the night on Cat Ba island in the Bay. Which also turned into one of the funnest nights out - although my continues failed attempts to adjust to the US then back to vietnam had me awake for about another 20 hours that day.... A fantastic day.