Halong Bay - Floating the night away...

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I left Sapa after only one night. It was just too cold and wet, but I think it would be a great destination for summer, especially if you enjoy trekking. Make sure to visit The Gecko if you go to Sapa. It's on the main street and the bar has a great atmosphere. They also book bus and train tickets.

The bus back to Lao Cai station took less than an hour this time. It was a minibus packed with me and a bunch of, God help me, Chinese tourists. AAAHHHH! I took the night train again and did not sleep well. At around 4:00 AM we were woken up and told to move to the next car. I could smell that something was wrong. So we sat there for about an hour and a half while they fixed whatever it was, then we were on our way again. I had booked a tour of Halong Bay today that left at 7:45 AM from the "real" Kangaroo Cafe, so I was a bit anxious. We arrived in Hanoi around 6:30 and I took a motorbike ride to the cafe. I had just enough time to eat a very western, and very good, breakfast before we left for Halong Bay.

I booked through Kangaroo Cafe (the real one is at 18 Pho Bao Khanh in the Old Quarter) because they limit their tours to 14 people and have a good reputation. I was with four British teachers who are working in Thailand and a Canadian family, who frankly, irritated the crap out of me, and their two Canadian friends, a married couple who also irritated the crap out of me. Luckily, the British teachers were a lot of fun. I think they felt sorry for me since I was alone and they invited me to do everything with them, which was fine with me. I think the fact that I was a woman traveling alone bothered our guide as well. He seemed to either forget I was there, or go overboard to try to include me in whatever he was doing or talking about. Whatever. I'm fine traveling alone.

Because I hadn't slept well on the train, I mostly slept on the 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Halong Bay, but I did take a peek at the French inspired architecture occasionally. The homes are very narrow, but very long and sometimes more than 4 stories tall. This is because when the French settled in Vietnam in the 1800's, the amount of tax on your property was determined by the width of your house on the street, not by how long or tall it was. Some of these homes had been added to, some obviously widened, but many of them were colorful and really beautiful. To me they looked almost Spanish and many would have fit perfectly in Mexico.

We finally made it to Halong Bay, got on our boat without incident, and checked in. I had a room all to myself, which would not have been the case if there had actually been 14 people on board. When I paid the deposit, they said I might have to share, but they did not charge me extra for traveling alone like a lot of companies would. I paid 79USD, like everyone else. There were three beds in my small room, but I had plenty of space and my room was really nice, and so was the bathroom. We had a lunch of a variety of seafood, chicken, veggies, pork, and fruit for desert. I will take this opportunity to explain the first reason the Canadians irritated me to know end. On the bus, five of the six raised their hands to say they were vegetarian. So they tried to accommodate that on the boat, but every time they brought out a chicken or seafood dish, they would eat it all before the Brits and I got any!!!!!! Then I realized the couple without children were named Randy and Sandy. I showed great restraint and said nothing. Sandy, however, was like something straight out of a Seinfeld episode. She could have been one of Jerry's dates that he rejected for some stupid reason. The reason, you ask? Everytime someone said something, she would repeat it and add -ee to the end. "Prawnees. Little prawnees." She must have said this a hundred times! Fishees. Little fishees. I seriously thought I was going to have to smack her.

Moving on. We floated around Halong Bay for about an hour before we reached our first destination. The scenery was stunning and looked remarkably like the Li River here in China. I was there about a month ago and took a cruise down the river. The limestone formations were very similar, only Halong Bay is obviously not a river. And the water was much cleaner. Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site, so I hope the Vietnamese will take care of it. I went with the Brits to climb to a lookout point on one of the formations where we had stunning views. The Canadians went kayaking in the Bay and went to a lagoon that sounded fantastic, but I can't swim and the thought of turning over in a kayak scares the pee out of me. The water was really calm though, and we had great views of the Bay.

We got back on the boat after about 1 1/2 hours and has some drinks before dinner, where the vegetarian Canadians continued to eat any meat put in front of them. Again, I did not say anything. Someone pat me on the back. I noticed they rarely touched the tofu, but the British gals liked it. Little miss -ee kept going at dinner. Bouncee ballees. Little mousees. Good grief. Torture. The food was good anyway. After dinner we sang kareoke, and one of the Canadian guys was actually really good! He won the free beer competition. After a while we got tired of singing, and the Canadians had already gone to bed, but our guide just kept on singing at the top of his lungs while we were trying to talk. That seriously cut into his tip from me.

I slept well on the boat after a hot shower, and the next day we visited Amazing Cave. It has three different chambers and was quite impressive. Each chamber is bigger than the previous one and the tour was really interesting. After that we went back to the harbor, which took about an hour, but it got pretty foggy and we couldn't see much. It was really peaceful though. The tour boats are called junks and they make almost no noise as they slowly cruise the Bay. They are really beautiful boats too. They used to be used for fishing, and my friend who visited Vietnam 10 years ago said junks were not available at that time, so they are a relatively new thing. A lot has changed in Vietnam in the last five years though. My 2005 guidebook was seriously out of date.

At the harbor we went to the hotel for lunch, where, once again, the Canadians ate every piece of meat put in front of them. Still, I did not point out that they had claimed to be vegetarian. However, I did at one point (did you really think I could NOT say anything at all?) ask them if they wanted any of the dish I was holding and I made it very clear it was chicken. I believe I said something like, "This chicken is really good. Anyone want to change their mind about being vegetarian and give it a try?" The British guy across from me nearly spewed water through his nose. No one answered me, but I got some interesting looks from the Canadianees.

I slept on the four hour bus ride back and said goodbye to my British friends, booked a flight for Danang for the next morning, and went back to Little Hanoi Hotel for a rest. Wow, I really did not know what I was in for there.

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Photos

My room on the boat
I booked through Kangaroo Tours - the real one, and had a great room on the boat.

Not my boat
but it looked like the boat I was on. It's called a junk and they were everywhere.

Halong Bay
I forget what these rocks are called but apparently they are very famous.

View from the lookout
I forget the name of the lookout, but we had nice views.

Me
One of only two pics of myself taken on this entire trip

Back to the Bay
Taken from the deck of the junk

Floating 7-11
There were several of these around. We were told not to buy beer from them by our guide, who proceeded to buy everything BUT beer from them.

Inside the Cave
We visited one of the many caves in Halong Bay

Penis Rock
Inside the cave. It was fairly noticeable, but difficult to photograph.

Halong Bay
Outside the cave

Interesting Rock
The story is a woman came here to wait for her lover and was here so long she turned to stone.