When I get the chance to sit in the window seat, I love looking down on God's majestic and beautiful creation. These are the Cascade Mountains we passed over on our way to Seattle on March 14th.
From there, we flew to Inchon, Seoul, Korea which has an amazingly beautiful airport complete with live entertainment. The violinists played lovely soothing music. From there, we flew on to Hong Kong and arrived late in the evening.
Steve had exchanged points for a stay in a Marriott near the airport so it was a quick shuttle ride. They upgraded us to the most beautiful suite I have ever stayed in. We were tired so we enjoyed our respite in the luxury environment. We knew our room on the cruiseship would be MUCH smaller.
After a good night's sleep and breakfast, we took a taxi from the hotel to the cruise ship. We haven't been in Hong Kong since we picked up Taylor from his mission so we eagerly looked out of our windows to catch glimpses of the city. Our driver was friendly and asked where we were from. When we told him Utah, he said his daughter is getting her master's degree from University of Utah. Upon further conversation, he asked if we were Mormons. We told him we were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said he was too and held up his temple recommend. We were amazed that of all the drivers in Hong Kong, ours would be a member. We tipped him well.
Because we have attained platinum status on Norweigian Cruises, we had a preferential access to registration and luggage inspection. It didn't take us long to board the ship. The long building on the left is the cruise terminal. It is fairly new and there is still a lot of construction around it. We were happy our driver knew how to negotiate the hazards of the area.
Below we got to watch the tanker fill our ship with diesel fuel which powers the generators .
The skyline of Hong Kong is shown behind me.
Here is our view of the Hong Kong skyline as we sailed out of the harbor.
We won an upgrade bid so our room had a window and was a little larger than our regular inside cabin and it was quite comfortable. However, it didn't really compare to the suite at the Marriott.
Sunday, March 17, St. Patricks Day, was a sea day. We were able to relax and count our blessings. Generally the cruise food is excellent but my corned beef and cabbage is better.
On Monday, March 18, we arriver in Ha Long City, Vietnam which is the gateway to Hanoi for some travelers. Hanoi is 2-3 hours away and we preferred to see the world renown Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We boarded a junk boat after our arrival and hoped and prayed that the weather would clear enough that we could see the thousands of towering limestone islands covered with rainforests which pop up out of the emerald waters.
It cleared enough for us to enjoy weaving in and out of the islands on our junk boat cruise. However, we missed the beautiful color of the water since the sun did not shine at all that day.
There were many interesting vessels on the water in the area. Many of them are for commercial and fishing use in addition to the tourist junk boats.
This little boat was a floating fruit stand and the locals would pull up along the side of the junk boats to sell their produce.
Most of the islands are named after animals or legends but I can't remember any of them.
I think that this island was named Thumb Island.
A stop was made at Thien Cung Cave, and we were given a chance to climb up about 100 steep steps up to the entrance. We were so happy that we made the choice to climb up the steps because the caverns inside were simply spectacular!
Pictures of this huge, panoramic limestone cave don't begin to do justice to its magnificent beauty.
We LOVED, LOVED, our visit to Ha Long Bay in the northern Quang Ninh Province of Vietnam.
Inside the junk boat on our return, workers tried to sell us souvenirs. We enjoyed visiting with these fellow cruisers from Canada. All in all, it was a very memorable day.
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