Three and a half hours outside of Hanoi lies HaLong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our bus whisks us from the opulence of the Hanoi Sofitel Metropole to the ragged coastline of HaLong, and, minutes later, we’re on board the six-cabin boat that will be our home for the next twenty-four hours.
Caves, salt water swimming, and fresh seafood abound. As the sun sets, the dragon’s teeth islands (all 1,969 of them) disappear into the darkness. Eventually, we lie on our backs and stare up into the blackest expanse of sky I’ve ever seen, dusted with billions of glittering points of light.
It is the first time I can ever remember seeing nothing but space. Even though I know I’m safely on a boat in a bay in Vietnam, I feel a sudden rush of panic; some part of my brain is convinced I’m on the verge of falling upward into infinite space. The vertigo lasts only a moment, but the sensation of being sucked up into the abyss will stick with me for a lifetime.
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