Wet wet wet in Halong Bay-ay-ay, without an umbrella-ella-ella or jumper in sight


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Asia » Vietnam » Northeast » Quang Ninh » Halong Bay
April 2nd 2009
Published: April 9th 2009
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Oh what fools we were! Note to all ding-bats like ourselves out there: if you’re going to do a two day plus tour out in god-only-knows-land, don’t assume that just because it’s sunny and hot when you leave that it will be the same when you get off a 11 hour train ride!!! As we found out- Halong Bay- which is stunning!!! Is also freezing. And neither of us had a jumper. Just a poncho each to wrap ourselves up in…

The train… oh the train. Now I’m all for toughing it, but four to a room the size of a shoe box as the toilet in the next room over-floods and the stench fills said room- for ten plus hours- is tough. Not to mention it isn’t really a passenger train in the sense we know it- rather a coal train with carriages. But we did it and chalked it up to experience.

We met some really lovely people on tour- and literally it was these people who made this worth it. There was Verity and Tom, a lovely British couple who loved to have a laugh and were great conversationalists! There was Kate and Matt- a great, kind couple from Brisbane-who we plan to catch up with at a later date. There was also ‘The Boston Boys’- Chris, Ross and Jim- who certainly knew how to party. Plus others (the weird Lolita loving man and his wonderfully awkward Asian wife, the polite old man and his even politer under twenty, male, Thai companion… and of course our tour guide- who was a bit of cringeworthy git!)

Together we kayaked through the Halong Bay- which was astounding. There was a moment when Jian and I paddled under a mountain and came out the other side only to be greeted with a stunning, awe inspiring silence- where the only sound in the entire landscape was just our breathing. Amazing. We also saw some fantastic surrounding caves- where our lousy tour guide showed us rocks in the shapes of animals doing weird things (this is a villiage man kissing a chicken!- seriously it was like finding shapes in clouds)- but our favourite was a natural rock formation that looked like a giant turtle with an open mouth. Our guide explained that it was good luck to donate money and put it in the turtles mouth- only he reached in and pulled money out!!! Saying “I guess it’s my lucky day after all!” I did some trekking that turned into mountain climbing in the rain- which was extremely rewarding, but ridiculously dangerous. We had some of the best food and some of the worst of our entire trip- thank god for the fruit!

We went out with the ‘Boston Boys’ and got drunk on rice wine and beer and ended up in what we thought was a verrry gay friendly random club in the middle of absolutely nowhere… oh man, that was weird. We did Karaoke on the Junk we stayed in overnight and I partook in my one regret of my entire trip: a horrible, semi-drunk rendition of ‘I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me’

(oh so embarrassing)

We left the junk but Jim, on the B.Boys left his wallet on the boat- the tour guide did nothing and when we went back on the boat for the return trip- the wallet was suspiciously gone. It’s a boat… where else is it going to disappear to?
The train trip home was better than the first- we met another lovely couple who fed us with fantastic insider tips about Barcelona and told us where all the good bars were and the best places to get food etc… Big thanks going out to you kids!

The Halong Bay funny highlight: ‘Boat jumping and boarding’- yep, okay time to scale from the dock to the boat dock which is eight feet below you… how will we do this- a steep downward sloping plank with a makeshift ballistrade made out of a length of PVC pipe being held by two tiny Vietnamese men… And then getting back up? Well, you jump off the boat and have to climb the cement scaffolding back up onto the boardwalk! There was an old guy who seriously almost fell straight into the drink… Also boat jumping- is exactly as it sounds… Time to swap boats- okay… they literally pull up next to each other, crash bows together and you jump onto the next boat- with your baggage. Man, it was awesomely terrifying.



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9th April 2009

"We did Karaoke on the Junk we stayed in overnight and I partook in my one regret of my entire trip: a horrible, semi-drunk rendition of ‘I’ve been to paradise, but I’ve never been to me’" bahahahahaha. Yay Priscilla!
9th April 2009

oh man.... priceless, completely priceless. am sick and feeling horrid so will email you another time, take care my lovelies! xoxo

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