it's been one of those weekends...

where everything goes right. most of the time i don't like booking tours; i'd rather explore on my own than with a big group. right now jasmine, morgan and i are traveling with three other single travelers. it's been great to get some "fresh blood" into the mix. even though there are a few other people in the tour group, we've really had the chance to go off on our own.

yesterday we left hanoi (i hate big cities) for halong bay. it is a magical place where limestone pillars jut out of the ocean. the story goes that a giant dragon returned to the ocean, knocking over mountains with his tail on the way in, leaving these amazing formations. the first thing we did was kayak through and around them. i've been kayaking a few times before, but nothing like this. it was an experience straight out of dreams. after returning to our little ship, called a junk boat, we went for a swim in the ocean. the boat has 3 levels, and we dove off of all of them. very exciting. the evening was so nice that we decided to sleep out on the deck of the top level. while we were lying there, no fewer than 10 shooting stars went past. 2 of them were the kind that you see for several seconds and just can't believe it. they had long purple tails, complete with a split and two tracks. i can't think of words to describe it. it looked like computer animation but more real. at 3:30 it started to sprinkle, so we all returned to our cabins for a few hours of sleep. then this morning we took a great trek overlooking all of the formations in the bay. it was unreal. i don't think uploading photos could ever do it justice, so you'll just have to use your imagination.