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Published: February 21st 2009
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Just leaving the harbor. I should have known the way this 2 day 1 night trip to Halong Bay was going to turn out at 7:55am the day we left. I was on my way down the stairs with all my bags to make sure I was there at 8am, the agreed upon meeting time, when I heard that our tour guide was wigging out because we were not down there waiting for him. He kept saying, "the bus is not going to wait." I'm sure everyone is fairly aware at this point that I'm not a morning person and that all yelling at me is going to do nothing but cause me to drag out the process a little longer. I'm easily agitated in the morning, especially when someone is yelling at me. I told him to calm down, if he wanted us to be there before 8am he should've mentioned it. After this whole ordeal, he told us to wait while he proceeded to stop and talk to one of his friends that he bumped into in the street. I said, "hurry up, the bus is not going to wait," numerous times in a row as he had done to me, we were
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A bit hazy but you can still make out the islands. off to a great start! On the bus everyone was asked to introduce themselves and naturally our group was excluded from the lame meet and greet. Apparently, because we had booked a separate tour that included staying on Cat Ba Island, opposed to the boat tour that everyone else was staying on, there was no reason to get to know one another on the 4 hour bus ride.
Along the way we stopped (against our will) at a place where crafts were made by "underprivileged children," these are the tour guides words, not mine. We arrive and find all the exact same stuff that is widely for sale in every shop in Hanoi and Vientiane, Laos now that I'm thinking about it. I asked a lady how much a bracelet was that Bryan had purchased in the city for $1 and although it said $8 on the back, she told me it was $9. On the way out of the craft store we were paraded past the "underprivileged children," the youngest being at the least 22. On top of the fact that none of them were children, they in no way were underprivileged! I literally watched one of the "underprivileged
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Pulling into the bay with the fisherman's market. children" pause her iPod to answer a phone call on their cell phone. With the prices in this place for mass produced machine products they could easily send each and everyone of these "underprivileged children" to Oxford.
Eventually we arrived in Halong Bay, upon arrival our tour guide who I got along with so well said that he wasn't our tour guide and to sit tight while he located her. A quick 45 minutes of sitting on the ground in the parking lot we were following her to the boat that was to take us through Halong Bay and to our destination for the night. Along the way we stopped at some caves that were included in our itinerary, I've never been more disappointed in a natural wonder. As we pulled up there was music and announcements over a loud PA system telling all visitors to the cave not to leave any trash behind. It literally felt as though I was walking through the gates to Universal Studios. Once in the cave I was even more disappointed, they have literally taken the unbelievable cave and poured thousands of pounds of cement all throughout it and built cement stairs for tourists.
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This lady pulled up to our boat while we were moving to try selling us fruit. There were ten different shades of light shooting up at the cave walls, giving it a Pink Floyd laser show feel and miles of electrical cable running from unhidden electrical boxes that were cemented to the cave floor. Then to top it all off our itinerary said that we were to see a grotto with a natural fountain in the cave. I swear to god, there were hoses running through drilled holes in the cave that were creating the "natural fountain." The guide sat there and lied to my face saying it was natural, so I called her over and pointed out the fully exposed, bright red hose and she just laughed and walked away. I've never seen a natural phenomenon completely destroyed to make a few bucks from tourists! Once we arrived back to the boat our tour guide told my group that we were to move to another boat that would take us to Cat Ba Island. So, we moved all our stuff again to the next boat.
Upon arrival to Cat Ba Island we caught a taxi to our hotel were our guide was supposed to meet us to take us on a fishing trip, he/she never
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Choices at the floating fish market. showed up. So, we spent the night on the island, got up at 7am and caught a taxi to the marina where we got on another boat. I'd tell you about the island but all I know is from what I've read. This boat took us through the bay and literally docked up to another boat at one point in the middle of the bay and told us to take our stuff once again and move over to that boat. So, here is the list of things promised to us by the travel agent that never came true:
1. Friendly, English speaking guide
2. One boat
3. Natural grotto
4. Tour of the island
5. Fishing Trip
6. A good experience
This tour blew but I will say that Halong Bay is absolutely beautiful and I would go back at any time. There are countless limestone islands rising up out of the water everywhere you look, literally 360 degrees around! There are floating fishing villages where people make a living by selling their fresh catches to tourists and locals, we were able to stop at one of these which was pretty cool. I wish I had an incredible
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The bay. Halong Bay story but it is what it is! Off to Hoi An via a sleeper bus.
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