What a day! We all woke up this morning and boarded a van that took us on a 3 1/2 hour journey to Hon Long Bay, which not only showed us the beautiful countryside of Vietnam, but let us experience some of Vietnam’s culture in one of their most popular tourist spots. Once we got on a boat that would take us around the bay, our tour guide (Hong –> greatest tour guide ever!) educated us on some more Vietnamese culture and history.
We stopped once to explore on of the famous caves in one of the hundreds of islands within the bay, which is also where we took most of our pictures for this day (hopefully we will be able to add them later). This is where the title of my blog (“One, Two, Bat”) was created. As Hong was trying to teach us all Vietnamese numbers (and what a struggle that was!), we all decided we liked the number three in Vietnamese (bat), so instead of saying “one, two, three” before we would take one of our many pictures, we said “one, two, bat!” Not only did we all fall to pieces in laughter every time we said this, but other tourists found our hilarity and silliness amusing as well.
After visiting the cave and surviving the steep downhill steps within the mountain on the island (although at one point someone almost had to carry Mrs. Taplin and Victoria due to their fear of heights), we all made it back to the boat to eat our enormous lunch! We ate a variety of Vietnamese food (I have decided Spring Rolls are becoming one of my favorite parts of Asian food) as well as some American food (we were pleasantly surprised to find french fries among our lunch). After lunch, one of the ladies on the boat (she worked for the tourism company) came out with her many goods (jewelry, art, $4 pedicures, etc) and tried to get money from each one of us. You will all have to wait and see what some of us ended up buying when we all get home (I would not want to ruin the surprise if they wanted to be the first to show/tell you!)
Another 3 1/2 hour car ride was in store for us to get back to the hotel, so in order to make time fly by we decided to play “two truths and a lie.” Since we were past the point of delirium, this game worked very nicely as a distraction. I do not believe I have ever seen some of my teachers so slap happy, but then again I have never been on the other side of the world with any of my teachers until now 🙂 Basically, today was filled with many laughs and great bonding experiences! Thank you all for your support, love and prayers! We miss you all so much, but know that the Lord has His hand upon us and we are safe!
Love,
Emily