The second (2nd) day on Ha Long Bay started with Tai Chi for those in a mellow mood…I also was on the top deck, but did my exercise program. For all of us it was a spectacular moment…almost mystical!! The views, the mists, the salt-laden air…delightful!

After brekkie we headed off to go through a cave to a lagoon. Some went by kayak, the rest of us by flat-bottom skow which was propelled by a single oarsman. It was good to have someone else do the heavy lifting!!

After some additional site-seeing we then sat down to a satisfying lunch followed by sitting on the virwing deck while we headed back into port.

After disembarking our guide met us and took us to a very professional massage therapy-type facility. we were both treated at the same time in a private room for the two (2) of us. The result was a very mellow drive back to the Hanoi Airport. ST slept quite a bit of the way while I plugged in my MP3 and listened to music from the Vietnam war days…

Check in at the airport was smooth but the flight with Vietnam Airlines was delayed a couple times (our guide later explained this was the norm…I guess they bought all the old planes from Please Wait Awhile (PWA) when it disappeated from Canadian skies!!)

And service in the terminal was abyssmal: the Vietnamese soup was instant (& nuked) and ST’s plate of sausages turned out to be one (1) wiener on a stick. When I complained, the waiter pointed to the front of the menu where there was a small sentence near the bottom which said: pictures may not represent what will be served. But the beer was good and we did get zome real Haagen-Daz for dessert!!

The airport does provide free wifi so we sere able to get caught up on some communications. And eventually the plane left — the captain apologized for their tardinedd several times and promised to make up some of the time before putting the plane down. At that point all I could think of was comedian Shelly Burman’s skit where he got nervous when a pilot would say that because Shelly always figured he mughr decide to land in rhe ocean or some simular spot just to say he landed early. But we made it to Da Nang safely, were met by the new guide and had a delightful and quite uneventful drive to Hoi An…

Ad an aside I will say that Da Nang is a very clean and upbeat city and thete are several high end hotels and resorts along the route including one (1) very impressive hotel + casino built by Chinese businessmen…

We arrived at our own “resort hotel” on the river and shottly thereafter crashed…

…to be continued…