|ABOVE| Vagamundo caftan (c/o) // H&M belt // TOMS sunglasses // Hathamade bracelet (c/o)
If there was one place I would recommend anyone to go to in Vietnam, it would be Halong Bay. It’s truly magical and there’s a reason why UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.
We stayed on a junk (a boat) overnight, cruising through the limestone formations throughout the bay. While we fortunately didn’t have a Titanic moment, we did bump into a couple of the many tourist boats anchored in the bay. It was startling to see our boat drift into another filled with about a dozen Japanese tourists while we were all enjoying our dinners, but no one seemed to mind, as it has to be a frequent occurrence.
To be honest, the meals were probably my least favorite in the whole country because everything was fried and not as fresh as everywhere else we ate—but for two days on a boat, I can’t complain. The fruit at least, like the dragon fruit below was incredibly fresh.
Hiking through a limestone cave, effortlessly floating in the ocean with 30% salt in the water at a secluded beach, taking a small boat through an opening of the limestone into an untouched lake, peacefully watching the sun set over the bay, and doing yoga sun salutations on the top deck of the boat at sunrise were all up there on the list of my favorite things about this place. Number one may be falling asleep to watching the sky light up with lightening outside my cabin’s window, revealing the most brilliant stars shining and a gorgeous rain storm tapping on the water.
We luckily made it there just in time because the government closed the bay down just as we were leaving, thanks to an impending typhoon—which of course we did not escape on land…stay tuned for all that…
Just outside of the bay in Halong City, we learned how pearls are harvested by the locals and carefully created. I had no idea the many steps they took to make a perfect pearl. They have women that pry the oysters open in a vice, carefully insert a ball into the shell and they put the oysters back in the bay to make the pearl around the ball. What a process! The results are amazing and now I can tell the difference between a cheap pearl, an okay pearl, an expensive pearl and even a fake one.
Nothing goes to waste in the Vietnamese culture and they punch out the shells of the oyster to make mother of pearl—like those buttons on your shirt! Who knew?
