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Published: April 23rd 2009
As we'd said we decided to go for the middle ground with our trip to Halong Bay, although we are backpackers we were getting a bit fed up of going on budget trips and having a rubbish time so we thought we'd see what the alternative was. We would have done it on our own but although it's very easy to arrange a day trip on a junk round the bay, we wanted to spend a night on the water and it's more difficult to do this so we were stuck with the tour group option.
We didn't get off to a good start when we were picked up 3/4 hour late from our hotel. We don't mind being picked up late but we'd got up a bit too late for our 7.45am pickup and had no time for breakfast so missed this and make do with bread rolls which the street seller lady tried to rip us off with. Had we known we'd be waiting so long we'd have gone for a proper breakfast. To make it worse when the guide did arrive he then told us we had to wait a bit longer as another couple were
still having breakfast! Ggggrrrr.
It's a 3 hour ride from Hanoi to Halong City where the port is so we had 40 winks on the way and stopped off at a rip off rest stop where the coffee was a scandalous $1 so we shared! We arrived at the port and were not surprised at all to find that it was like Heathrow airport at Christmas time... very very busy. All you could see was tour guides holding their hands up so their sheep group could follow them though the crowds and we all had to stick together to avoid being split up and never finding our junk.
Tickets purchased we all boarded our Chinese Junk home for the next 2 days quite excited at the prospect of our first ever night on the water. We got a fabulous room just off the restaurant complete with double bed, great views and a private bathroom with hot shower.. cool!
We had lunch straight away and were glad that we'd spent the extra few dollars on a good tour as the food was excellent. The only bad thing about these tours is that drinks are not included, even water, and
are hugely overpriced compared to the land so we couldn't enjoy many beers while we sailed around. We did actually know about this and had planned to buy a few beers the night before but had left it too late to get some so had to make do with water which was a shame.
Our first port of call (ha ha!) was the Thien Cung caves which were amazing. We hadn't really paid much attention to what we'd see on the tour so when we went inside the entrance and were greeted with an enormous cave all lit up in pretty colours with stalagtites and stalagmites we were very impressed. It was massively busy with a conveyorbelt of people traipsing though but because it's so big you actually manage to take photos with noone in them! We also bumped into a group of Indian Navy & Army people who all wanted with photos took with us and then wanted to take photos of us with our own camera which was quite funny. We learnt that this cave was only discovered in 1993 when a man followed an injured monkey into an entrance, after this the monkey has become one
of the stones in the cave (this bit is not true but the 1993 bit is!). We had to wonder how many more caves like this could be found in the 3,000 karsts that loom out the water.
After sailing though the bay for an hour or so we stopped at a small fishing community that lived on the water. Here we got to use the kayaks and paddle round the water which was excellent. Because you can get away from the noisy junks on your kayak you get to find small lagoons which are completely silent and we loved taking this in as we paddled along.. well Dale paddled along.. Sophie found it all too tiring on her arms and kept making us go in circles so was sacked!
With Kayaking done we were all asked if we wanted to take a dip in the water. Because of the threat of jellyfish Sophie declined but Dale dove straight in from the top of the junk and had a great time splashing around in the murky waters. The rest of our afternoon and evening were spent eating and taking in the beautiful scenery with our tour crewmates. After
dinner the fishing rods came out and our guide managed to catch something... not a nice fish for us to eat the following day but a huge jellyfish.. yuck! Apparently they do eat these here but it was not for us so we put it back. We had a reasonably early night as noone could afford the overpriced beers and retired to our cool bedroom for a good nights sleep.
We were woken up at 7am the next day to check out our rooms at 8am! Bit strange as we were all still on the boat but nevermind. Breakfast again was excellent and after this we set sail around the bay to take in more of the wonderful karsts that are all around as far as the eye can see. For once we were actually glad that it was a bit misty as it gave them an eerie feel as we'd seen in many photo before our arrival. We drifted along in silence for a few hours before arriving back at the port for lunchtime having enjoyed a fabulous 24 hours on the junk.
We had our lunch in a harbourside restaurant which was nice but the most
amusing thing here was the pearl lady sellers outside who could contend for the most ruthless sellers in Vietnam.. there is no messing with them! As soon as you step outside the doors you can see them lingering at the edge of the carpark, they are kept here by security who shoo them off if they step over the line and get too close to the tourists. If you even glance in their direction they wave you over so we decided to see what we could get from them. Sophie fancied a pair of black pearl earrings which were 40,000D in the shop so we set the price of 20,000D (80p) and pushed Dale out there to see if he could score the deal. As soon as you approach them they literally push their necklaces, earrings and rings right in your face and put as much as they can in your hands and refuse to take it back. It's so funny to watch as they pounce on people and as soon as you are in their grip it's very hard to get out, you have to resort to just putting all the things on the floor and drag yourself out
their grip to escape. Anyway the good news was that the earrings were got for 20,000 and a fellow group member also managed to get 3 necklaces with matching earrings for $5! Bargain!
So our tour was over and we are pleased to report that it was a really good trip and well worth opting for the better tour over the cheap as chips budget tours. We were so pleased as we had fully expected to be racking up the complaints in order to get our money back which would have just spoilt yet another experience so all credit to AST Travel for making us leave with a smile on our face and ticks all round on the feedback form!
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mum
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Mum
I hadn't realised how much you would change in such a short time!!! It looks absolutely lovely. keep them coming. Glad all is going well. Love from Mum xxxx