• Pearl Farm

    It wouldn’t be a proper tour without a stop at some place to buy jewellery.

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    In this instance it was pearls.

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    Some oysters take so long to grow and produce a pearl that sponges decide that it is a great place to settle down as well.

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    The smaller ones are grown in buckets until they are seeded.

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    After seeding they are moved to these mesh cages.

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    Here one is being gently opened to seed a pearl.

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    It is a very delicate job that can be done pretty quick after lots of practice.

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    Here’s one that is done and he is searching for the pearl.

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    There it is.

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  • Halong Bay

    The major reason for us to visit Hanoi was to eventually get over to Halong bay.

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    The bay is filled with hundreds of these small limestone islands jutting out of the water.

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    Just as we were pulling away from the shore we saw this bird of prey fishing. It was successful.

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    From a distance it looks like it is a wall of mountains.

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    Up close they take on a few different shapes like the snail.

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    Some have eroded to where only sheer cliff faces are left.

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    Others have overhanging spires.

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    They all looked really neat as we sailed through.

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    We did stop sometimes, and not just for tourist things. Sometimes it was to cool off and relax in the very warm water.

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    You can see the tide levels as it goes down. And sometimes this reveals caves you can go into.

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    We stayed overnight and the boats are only allowed to park where there are parking signs.

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    Sunset was nice but there was an island in the way. Although if we could see the horizon it would have been much rockier.

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    We set an alarm to wake us before sunrise.

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    Kerri actually got out of bed to get the pictures.

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    Matt just stayed in bed and watched a bit from the window as our cabin faced the sunrise.

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    Many of the rocks are very eroded at the bottom.

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    They looked like they would fall over and crush the boat.

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  • Vietnam Woman’s Museum

    One of the best museums we visited in Hanoi was the Woman’s Museum.

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    It had several floors explaining the role of women in Vietnam society. These are various costumes that are worn during incarnation rituals.

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    Here’s Kerri holding two baskets of goods. All over the city we would see women carrying various goods for sale this way.

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    The top floor had a bit of a short ceiling as Matt demonstrated.

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    These are the traditional garments of the Viet people for a wedding.

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  • Manila

    After relaxing on Bohol we went back to Manila. We took a cab out to the old walled city and spent the day wandering around. The river smelled like someone poured 200 rotten eggs into an outhouse on a 40 degree day. But fortunately you could only smell it from the top of the wall.

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    The grounds in the fort were well maintained and better than the fort itself.

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    After walking through the fort we walked over to the cathedral. It had been a while since we’d wandered through a Catholic church.

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    The museum had pretty good exhibits. This one was all about biodiversity of rice. These are all different species of rice that are grown in the Philippines.

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    This is a taxidermy of the largest eagle in the world that is critically endangered.

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    This was the tallest flying bird, sadly now extinct.

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    Much of the pre-colonial culture has been lost. This is an example of their boat building style that was done before Europeans arrived.

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    After leaving the museum we walked through the park towards the bay. On the way we saw this cool bright insect.

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    The park, like many other parks in capital cities had a very large flag.

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    With it being so close to the coast there was a good breeze. It was very nice in the shade to have a breeze. It is very hot and humid in Manila.

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  • Panglao

    After doing so much on Bohol we needed to relax on a beach and went to the smaller island connected to Bohol.

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    There were lots of coconuts growing. Sometimes they would fall so we made sure our chairs were not right underneath.

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    Other than the beach we also hung out at the pool.

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    This was the outside of our room.

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    This was the reception area and dining room.

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    The food was delicious and very romantic, with candlelight and everything. However our only treated water was only accessible by hose as Matt was too lazy to pour it into the glasses.

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    We saw a few insects other than mosquitos, like this spider.

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    We also saw this weird bug that had a house along side.

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    Out on the beach there were fiddler crabs guarding their holes from the giant humans.

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    There were upside down jellyfish that would hang out on the bottom and display their tentacles upright.

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    We found an odd looking starfish that only had four arms. We had seen a few before but this was the first time we got a good picture of one.

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    It actually had four arms and wasn’t just missing one. We may have flipped it over to check this out. It quickly flipped itself back over.

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    The view was nice and very relaxing just hanging out and doing nothing for a week.

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    Kerri enjoyed the really warm water in the ocean and read on her kobo.

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    She just had to check where the current was carrying her to make sure she didn’t float into any boats.

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    Thankfully there were no injuries.

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