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Halong Bay
Limestone karsts surround the boats on Halong Bay After a relatively sleepless night on bus from Hue I arrived in Hanoi, but only for a single night before I set out on a 3 day trip to the magnificent Halong Bay, and then a seperate day trip to a place called Tam Coc. That first night in Hanoi was a doozy, but for the sake of continuity I'll expand on that in my upcoming Hanoi entry.
Halong Bay is a few hours drive East of Hanoi on the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea. It really is an amazing area, famous for its limestone formations known as karsts. Try to picture and endless maze of limestone colums jutting abruptly out of the sea, some as bigger that a city block and some much smaller. The story goes that these islands were created by a great dragon as he made his way from the mountains to the coast. As he wound his way towards the water his tail lashed back and forth gouging out valleys, crevasses and caves, and when he finally dove into the ocean the area was flooded with water, leaving only the high ground visible. A geologist might have you
Halong Harbour
Boats, boats and more boats believe some mumbo jumbo about erosion... but I'll let each of you decide for yourself.
Either way, the scenery is beautiful and we spent a good part of the first couple of days just cruising along. We stopped for short treks through a couple of island caves which were(unfortunately, in my opinion) lit up like a Christmas tree for the benefit of tourists. I understand the need for lighting, but thought they could have done without the purple and aquamarine and gold. Lighting aside, the caves were pretty impressive just in their sheer size and also the fantastic formations within, most of which were pointed out by the guide as being a pig, dragon, woman or some other thing to which they bared little or no resemblance.
The first night was spent sleeping on the boat, which was actually pretty posh. That night there was a great view from the upper deck, as a distant lightning storm illuminated the sky and silhouetted the surrounding karsts. The spattering of lights from other boats moored nearby added to the effect, as did the Bryan Adams kareoke reditions that whafted across the water. This was the first (and so far only)
Hang Dau Go Cave
The one corner of Hang Dau Go Cave not bathed in garish light night where I've had a great view of the stars in Southeast Asia.
Day two saw us arrive on Cat Ba Island, one of the larger island in the bay, part of which is occupied by a national park. It's here that the short comings of our tour guide (and his english skills in particular) became increasingly apparent. In short, none of us had much of an idea of where we were at any given time, or where we would be heading in the near future. Not the end of the world in and of itself, but there was one situation in particular where we all got off a minibus thinking we were heading for our hotel, when in fact we were just about to embark on a 3 kilometer trek up the side of a mountain! I'm all for spontaneity, but had we known this, people may have been able to plan accordingly by say, bringing adequate water, or changing out of their flip-flops. On top of that, little things started to accumulate such as the ever pleasant wake up calls ("Get up... Now!") or the popular sitting at a table with 4 friends and having a single
Halong Bay II
Halong Bay by night person be asked to move without any explanation. As far as I can tell this is usually done to prevent a Vietnamese woman from sitting between two strange men, or to accomodate a family. Both these reasons are understandable, but the Vietnamese passengers were never asked to move and the lack of explanation made everything seem a little rude, although I realize this is probably due more to the language barrier than malice. It became somewhat of a laughing mater between the passengers, and we just learned to roll with the punches. But I digress...
The night we spent on Cat Ba was great fun having gotten together with a good group of travelers including two Belgians, a German, an American and a couple fellow Canadians of which I've met relatively few of on this trip (As a side note, this is also where I found out about the tragedy that had befallen the Ottawa Senator the night before. I had managed to tune into all the games over the internet with the exception of the last one, but by the sounds of it I'm glad I missed it). After spending a few hours on a great beach that
Deck Life
So there's a Canadian, a German and an Irishman on a boat.... was packed with locals we had dinner and then headed out for bia hoi (that's "fresh beer"). Brewed fresh and distributed every day this stuff is all over Vietnam, although I think it's more prominent in the North. Tastes pretty good and cost a mere 2000-3000 dong/glass. That means you can buy a round for you and your 6 friends for a little over $1 US. At that price, how could you not have a good time?!
The area know as Tam Coc, which I visited the day after returning from Halong Bay is a couple of hours Southwest of Hanoi and is sort of an inland version of the same type of geology. The main activity for the day was rowboat trip down down a small river bounded by rice paddies with more karsts jutting directly out of them. Some of the locals here, for whatever reason, seem to enjoy kicking back and rowing with their feet instead of their hands. Strange maybe, but actually looked pretty comfortable and they were certainly able to motor along that way. Anyway, the boat ride was very picturesque, but in what seems to be a recurring theme, was tarnished ever so
Life's A Beach
The aptly named Beach #1 on Cat Ba Island slightly by continuous harrassment from floating merchants and extortion attempts from the guide rowing our boat. It would have been great if only I knew how to say "We don't want to buy anything... just paddle the boat and I'll give you a big fat tip at the end", but alas, my Vietnamese is limited and I have yet to be able to get that one across.
As I mentioned, the next stop on my trip would be the bustling city of Hanoi and its historic Old Quarter.... stay tuned for more.
Mike
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Marie
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Wow Mike, it sure looks like you're having an awesome time! I'm really enjoying your stories....loving the syntax....and the previous mentioning of height challenged people (I have a feeling I'd feel almost normal there!). Can't wait to see more of your trip! Take care!