April 19, 2026
If you have been following along, you know I really hoped to see an active
Octopus here, swimming through the water. What I didn't specify is what size the
Octopus
would be in that wish! Here in
Raja Ampat we have noticed that our dive masters and guides are really focused on the tinest creatures, in these huge oceans. They carrying writing boards to tell us what we are looking at, because we are talking things the size of a finger tip! So I did
technically get my dream of seeing an
Octopus in flight! Meet the rare and deadly (their sting can kill you in 3 minutes)
Blue Ringed Octopus! He is the small purple and yellow dotted piece cling to the corals below (on the bottom right). You would think just another coral - until you see him move in videos below. Enjoy!
He really is kinda fascinating - he changes colors between flying and landing to better blend with the corals he stops on - somtimes he is white body other times yellow. We watched him for several minutes and it's a good thing I didn't know about the poisonous venom until we were out of the water!
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck!
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.
Next stop on the VIETNAM FUN TOUR is HOI'AN - The City of Laterns! I had arranged a private car to take us between all the major locations and towns for the 5 days we were touring the interior. He delivered us to Hoi'An in just about an hour from Ba Na Hills . Here we stayed 2 nights and had lots of relaxing time built in. Again the heat was oppressive! The driver recommended below tailor to me as I mentioned I might want to have a dress custom made as that is another thing the town is known for with 24 hour turn around.