Halong Bay!! Beautiful!!!

We woke up early this morning and packed and headed down to breakfast!  A very yummy buffet!  I loved all the tropical fruit!  Then we boarded a bus headed for Halong Bay for a 4 hour drive.  Our guide told us a lot of interesting things about Vietnams' history and culture.  About 1/2 way we stopped for a break at a store where they were selling a lot of handicrafts.  I found some really cute bamboo placemats.  There was a lot of embroidery and there were actually a room full of women doing it on their machines as you walked in.  (picture below.)  A little while later we stopped at a Pearl Factory where they gave us a demonstration of how they make cultured pearls.  It was very interesting.  Then we went inside a HUGE store where they had rows and rows of pearl jewelry.  I saw some beautiful things but luckily pearls aren't a temptation for me.  After we boarded the bus, we only had another 1/2 hour until we made it to the port where we got on the boat.  Our room is really nice and has a balcony!  We got settled in our room and then went upstairs for lunch, which was really good.  We had about an hour, so we took a nap.  Then we boarded a small boat and headed for some caves on one of the 1969 islands in the bay.  It was really neat!  We hiked up a bunch of stairs and then down into 3 caves.  It was really cool to see the formations on the ceiling.  (One formation looks like a monkey climbing a tree-- pictured below.)  We hiked back out of the caves and headed for our boat.  It was REALLY humid-- especially after hiking out of the caves where it was cool and then coming outside where it was warm, plus being extra warm due to hiking back up lots of steps!  It is so beautiful here-- the islands are everywhere and just poke up out of the water so cute!  It was foggy (really foggy) for most of the day, so we didn't get to see much of them.  (Hoping for a sunny day tomorrow!)  This afternoon we went to a "cooking" class where we learned how to make spring rolls.  They turned out super tasty!  The food here is really good!  They use a lot of lemon grass.  After the class, Bill and I went and got ANOTHER massage, only this time it was included with our cruise!  It was really nice and felt so soothing!  We headed straight to dinner after and got to wear a Vietnamese clothing of royalty!  The dinner was very good (2 main courses)-- I like the desserts-- they are really light, and not too sweet!  We are going to turn in early and get some much needed sleep.  We are still trying to get on Vietnam time!  I'm really enjoying this trip-- I'm so glad we chose to come to Vietnam-- we chose it because it was different than any other trip we've taken so far with Jones and we were feeling very adventurous.  It's a beautiful country with so many things to do and see!!!!