Day 9: Adventures galore (Saturday, July 5)
If you make an analogy with dates, you'll notice that I'm seriously lagging on finishing up my holiday postings. I have two days before I have to fly back to Hong Kong and my natural life, so I will persevere. I will not allow this blog to become another box of photos that need to be put in an album. So, resolutions aside, back to the holiday.
After today I have greater honour for all the backpack kids who travel for six months or a year all over Asia. They party every night and sightsee every day, but I think partying at gloaming is quite incompatible with great mornings and afternoons. And it's not just because I'm old - I've always thought so. But today I did it all anyway.
We woke up this morning to the most fantastic views of Halong Bay. I posted a few of them in the last post and may cheat and stick some into my HK blog next school year when life seems markedly dreary. It was great going along in the sunshine, completely unconcerned about timing or destination. I guess that's what I like defeat about tours. It's like being a bad kid on a field trip who ignores the teachers and just hangs out with her friends.
We met up on another boat with a crowd of other people from our bus and spent the morning riding around Cat Ba island and being taken down a tidal river through mangrove swamps to a quiet break down. I spent most of the time hearing fascinating stories from Derbhla about her experiences volunteering with special needs kids in Belarus. We had a notable lunch in a bamboo hut on stilts...