We recently took an incredible journey to one of the most beautiful parts of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay while we’re waiting for citizenship paperwork to be completed for the recent adoption of our boy Evan Binh Minh. It’s around the middle of the Vietnam and China ocean, where the red A is below:

We had a fantastic 2 day cruise on the excellent Indochina Sails. Their boats are very classic, in between a Chinese junk ship, and an classic wood Galleon ship. It was really incredible, kind of like being in a Pirates of the Caribbean or Lord of the Rings movie! It was our first cruise and we really enjoyed it, very luxurious, but cheaper than a hotel!
The bay is between Vietnam and China, and has hundreds of islands, caves, and exciting wonders, with lots of local fishing boats.

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Part of the tour of the bay included swimming in the warm, very salty ocean on a beach off one of the islands. It was Evan’s first time in the ocean, he was mesmerized!
Then, we were taking to a floating fishing village subsidized by the Vietnam government. Everything on water, including floating stores that came up to our boat with their wares, latched right beside us as we were travelling, and a floating school! It was truly unreal how these people live where they work. You can see all of this in the photos below:

Finally, we went to a cave called surprise cave that was a massive underground cavern inside one of the island mountains! There were even live bats inside that we saw hanging around, and since we were the first visitors to the cave in the morning, we got to see them in their natural habitat flying around the back of the cave! Evan was asleep and suddenly woke up inside this cave, I wonder what he thought? He seemed quite fascinated.

We wished it was longer and will definitely be back for a longer tour, as there is so much to see in this beautiful place, the photos give a tiny glimpse of what you see when your there. I highly recommend you visit this part of the world… Fascinating!