I had read that bioluminescence is possible to see in Halong Bay, Krabi, and Bali.  I was hoping for the glowing trifecta, but didn’t see it in Halong Bay.  This is a plankton that emits light when stressed so water movement causes them to light up.  I’ve seen it once in Palau and it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

There were tours offering night snorkeling so I signed up for one.  I was sick the day I was supposed to go, but the guesthouse was able to reschedule me for today.  It was a whole afternoon of snorkeling and island hopping and dinner.  I brought crackers and cookies so I could eat bland food instead – so glad I did.  Although everyone said dinner was great, just looking at it almost did me in.

The snorkeling was the most unimpressive snorkeling I’ve ever done, but after diving, I expected that.  I just floated and enjoyed being in the water instead.  We went to two different snorkel locations.  It was two large boats full of people.  Again, I expected this.   Most of the people were as unexciting as the other tour I took and diving.  I did spend some time talking to a couple of other English Teachers from the UK who were fun.

We went to Railey Beach for sunset.  I was able to walk over to the climbing shop and get a partial refund on the climbing I didn’t do so that was nice.  I also found mochi balls.  It’s always a great day if there are mochi balls. Saw some monkeys too.  One threw a corn cob at me.  He had bad aim, but my opinion of monkeys is still that they are mean little creatures best to be looked at from afar.

Overall, it was too long a day.  By the time we got to the swimming with plankton part of the trip, I felt horrible and just wanted to sleep, but this is what I came for.  It was a ton of rude people flailing around in the water kicking and splashing.  We only had 10 minutes and most of it was spent fending off people or that slimy fish that kept trying to adhere itself to my leg.  I thought maybe he was trying to suck the pain out of my pulled muscle since that is what he kept going for, but decided I still didn’t want to befriend him.

There was bioluminescent plankton.  It was very faint and you couldn’t see it from the surface, but if you waved your hand around about a foot below the surface, you could see little sparks.  Overall, I’d call it a success.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore