Geologists have a great story about the formation of the islands over roughly a 500,000,000 year period. They were formed under the water from lots of sediment and animal remains and eventually pushed up above the sea. There are almost 2,000 such islands. But the locals have a much better version of the story. This area was settled thousands of years ago as can be proven by the archeological remains. And since isand was a great harbor it needed to be protected from invading armies. So they asked a dragon to drop jewels into the sea to make it very difficult for ships to enter the harbor and attack. I like that story much better.
So our excursion was getting on a junk right alongside our ship as in the photo and travelling through the islands. I will only include a few photos. I took many. Too bad the sky wasn’t blue!
The last photo is the kissing islands. These are the most famous. Every boat went by them.
We could get off the ship without a long ride into the city so we went for a walk on our free time in port. There is a large amusement park called Sunworld. It had rollercoaster, a wave pool called Typhoon and all sort of fun things. We didn’t go in.
But the most amzing part of the park was the gondola across the bay to a large Ferris wheel high on the hill. The bridge is lite and the colors change frequently. But the tall tower is part of the gondola that leads directly to the Ferris Wheel.
As in all of Southeast Asia, motor bikes are the norm. And they are not meant for one. Notice this one with 5. And they aren’t kids. We saw many families of mom, dad and two small ones. This was a bit unusual. Sorry about the kid in the way of the photo.
Johnson's Travel 