Halong bay and back

Its saturday evening here , we just got back from a spectacular day in Halong bay ( ~31/2-4hours east of Hanoi by car) probably 150 km. The trip there and back is its own story, nothing spectacular but traveling by car in Vietnam is proving an adventure. First there is the leaving of Hanoi- (they tell us that it is heavier than usual because of the upcoming New Year (students going home, others to family in country)) You feel that your car is slowly being squeezed down the road between the sea of motorscooters. Anyway the roads outside of Hanoi seem to be two lane highways (one lane in each direction) This area is shared by pedestrians, cyclists, motorscooters, cars and all types of trucks-from normal commercial to carts being driven by lawnmower engines. In general the roads are well paved with only an occaisional pothole but everyone here is in a hurry (except our driver -safety first) and they are all jockeying to pass the slower vehicles and avoid the oncoming traffic.

Being a captive audience gives you time to notice things along the way. Firstly (word?) they use nearly all the land here , if its not a house then a rice paddy,garden,  or cemetary. Secondly the homes outside of the city are in something called tube houses. they are narrow apartments generally 2-5 stories tall which are tastefully decorated , but usually only the front , sides are often left as unpainted cement.  Often times there is another tube house abutting or they may expect one in the future but in the country there are many stand alones which look peculiar with a brightly painted front and blank sides.

Finally almost every tube house has a storefront at its entry level.

I guess its like parts of NYC (bayridge, or parts of manhattan) however these are small towns.

Enough of this We finally arrived in Halong Bay- a UNESCO sight and boarded our boat. A PRIVATE BOAT FOR THE FOUR OF US!

Thats it! The white dolphin, off we went. Halong bay is due east of Hanoi , It contains > 2000 limestone karst (had to look it up) formations, many spectacular but see for yourselves.