4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
The short version via pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mpquinn/Asia2010
The narrative version:
4/7 – 4/8 Dallas to Singapore
4/9 – 4/10 Singapore
4/10 From the Ritz Carlton to the Seabourn Pride
4/11 – 4/12 At Sea
4/13 – 4/14 Laem Chabang
4/15-4/16 Ko Kood and at sea
4/17 – 4/19 Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon)
4/20 Da Nang
4/21 – 4/23 Halong Bay
4/24 Hong Kong
4/25 Homebound
Service Specific Comments on the Asia trip
4/21 Dock Halong Bay late in the day
Cruising into Halong Bay is just amazing. The bay includes 1969 islands and the island keep appearing out of the mist as we cruise toward Cai Lan, the major port on Halong Bay and the largest port in north Vietnam.
4/22 Halong Bay
Halong Bay kayaking tour! The pictures tell a better story than I could. Kayaking was hard because the kayaks had stuff growing on the hulls from being left in the water, thus they didn’t glide.
We took a junk out to a floating village that had the kayaks, kayaked for a couple hours, ate lunch on the junk, explored the caves in one of the islands which is pretty much hollow, then toured the bay via junk at a leisurely pace for a while. It was all about the scenery and Halong Bay is amazing.
Lunch was a hot pot which is like a Vietnamese fondue. In the center of the table is a pan of boiling broth and you have a half dozen plates of raw meat and vegetables along with sides of spring rolls, soup, noodles and rice. The meats were beef, shrimp, squid and white fish. The main vegetables looked like spinach and kale, but I am not positive. The broth was pretty mild and since everything on the table was easily identifiable to western eyes, the meal was popular. The beer was served warm, which was not popular. 
If you have not had fondue, or only had cheese/dessert fondues, meat fondue is done by taking small pieces of raw meat or vegetables, spearing them with a stick and cooking them in boiling broth. The hot pot is the same thing, except no sticks for spearing. Things are fished out with chop sticks or a slotted spoon.
One interesting thing kept happening. When we were on the junk, other boats would pull up to the junk and try to sell things. Once successful salesboat pulled up to us and a little girl hopped on the boat. The junk is a rather large boat that has an enclosed (with windows) first floor and an open second floor. There is a ledge around the boat, and this little girl goes running along the ledge stopping by each window to see if the people sitting inside want to buy anything from her.
Thus ends the random snapshots from the 8 hour Halong Bay tour.
The rough seas start almost as soon as we leave the bay but calm during dinner. Had a nice dinner with lots of wine. After dinner the seas got rough again and I throw up the nice dinner and lots of wine after a couple hours bouncing around. I was worried that this wasn’t going to make me feel better, but after this, nothing was sloshing around in my stomach and I felt much better. This is the first and only time I have actually gotten sick on a cruise. I have felt bad through rough weather before, but this little ship moves a lot more than the super cruise liners.
4/23 Cruise to Hong Kong
Rough seas. This was not a good end to our cruise. Managed to eat breakfast, feel sick during lunch and eat dinner. This was the first dinner where my wine glass was never “refilled”. I might have had a quarter a glass of wine that night, in anticipation of rough seas. The seas were rough and I didn’t feel sick to my stomach thanks to lots of ginger and almost no wine, but it was still too rough for me to fall asleep. Other than eating, I don’t think I left the room and it was a long sleepless night after dinner.