Titop Island and the Rice Fields of Vietnam...

Woke up this morning and went on a hike on Titop Island-- one of the tallest of all the islands here in Halong Bay.  We hiked a total of 200 steps up to the very top, and it was very steep!  It was a tough climb but we made it!  There was an observation deck at the top where we got some great pictures!Then, back down 200 steps to the bottom we went.  The island had a nice beach and a swimming area, but no one in our group went swimming.  We took the tender back to our boat and had a really nice breakfast.  After, we headed back to the harbor and checked out of our room and headed for the bus.  (There is a picture of "Mr. Bean" waving goodbye-- he was our very hyper travel director from India.)  There are 4 pictures our guide gave us with the crazy things people can carry on their motor bikes here... that is sugar cane on one of them and the last one is our guide and those are his water tanks they put on their homes for better water pressure.  We just can't believe all the crazy things we see here!  We traveled a couple of hours and then stopped for lunch.  We just bought some spring rolls and shared them with the Danleys-- Todd and Jerrie.  They are a super nice couple we had lunch with yesterday.  They are a lot of fun!  They are Texans through and through!  I always love people from Texas!  We got back on the bus and about a 1/2 hour later, we visited a farming and rice field community where we got to see them planting the rice and how they live in their little town.  We got to go into one lady's house and really see how they live.  The children are so cute and really want to interact with you.  We gave some money to the 2 little girls (pictured below... the granddaughters, we assumed, of the lady that we visited.)  We saw them take off on their bike--probably to go get an ice cream or treat with the money!!  It was a very warm day and the sun was out, so it was WARM and HUMID!  The community was poor and it reminded me a lot of Brazil-- especially with the heat and humidity!  (One good thing about that fog and overcast weather was that it kept it cooler!)  After the village we drove another hour and made it back to Hanoi, rechecked into the same hotel and checked into another room.  We took another shower as we were very hot and sweaty!  Tonight was the Edward Jones Welcome Dinner and we are now on the normal Jones trip.  (The last few days was our "pre-extension" trip.)  The dinner was super yummy!  We even had some cultural music with drums and a couple of "dragons" that danced around among our tables.  It was loud!  We ate and visited a bit and then came back to the room.  We were really tired so we turned in early!