Ere Be Dragons

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For our journey from Hue to Hanoi we decided to forsake the really uncomfortable overnight bus and try the overnight train - but obviously selected the soft bunks in a cabin of 4. With a view to still making the bus if the train turned out to be really awful, we made our way to the station to inspect our next form of transport. To our suprise it actually seemed quite comfortable, even though our bunks were the two upper ones and being slightly vertically challenged this could prove interesting. As we made our way to our cabin we passed some 4 berths which held families of 8 or 9 people and hoped that we would not be crammed into one of these. Lucky for us it was only a family of 4 on the bottom 2 bunks in our berth who turned out to be delightful traveling companions. The 2 young children were somewhat in awe of traveling with 2 white foreigners, but their reserve soon melted under Chris’ persuasive powers and the sharing of a tub of Pringles and they were keen to know all about us, and the little boy was keen to show off his martial arts prowess with Chris being the punch bag - happy days. They were incredibly generous and insisted on sharing their provisions with us and even though we tried to politely turn them down they were insistent and, not wishing to offend, we gave in. We were not too sure what we were eating, but when we tried the little hot sticky snack they thought it was incredibly funny as we both made a grab for the water and tried to dowse the flames in our mouths. On first inspection of the toilet situation we were dismayed to find an Asian toilet and felt that this would be a bit hopeful on a moving train and weren’t sure if we could hold on for a whole 12 hours, but luckily on further investigation we found a western toilet and breathed a joint sigh of relief. As it turned out it was a relatively comfortable journey, with good companions, and definitely a great deal more comfortable than the overnight bus.

On arriving in Hanoi we made our way straight to the Handspan office refreshed and ready for what we hoped would be the highlight for us in Vietnam, Halong Bay. Halong Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin, is made up of 1,969 islands of various sizes, 989 of which have been given names. The two kinds of islands found here are limestone and schist, were formed over 500 million years ago, and are concentrated in the two main zones: the southeast (belonging to Bai Tu Long Bay), and the southwest (belonging to Halong Bay, "Bay of Descending Dragons"). Our destination on this trip would be the less explored, and considerably quieter, we were told, Bai Tu Long Bay or “Children of the Dragon”. We were quite surprised by this as, in our ignorance, we hadn’t realized there were two different areas.


There is a local legend of the name Halong Bay. A long time ago the Vietnamese people were attacked by foreign aggressors. The Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon and her band of Dragon Children to help the people fight the invaders. While the enemy vessels were launching massive attacks against the mainland, the dragons descended in flocks from the sky. They spat out pearls which changed into jade stone islands the moment they touched the water. These islands linked together to form citadels that halted the enemy’s advance and smashed their vessels to pieces. After the invaders were driven out, Mother Dragon and her Dragon Children did not return to Heaven but stayed on earth, right at the place where the battle occurred. The spot where the Mother Dragon landed was Halong, and the Dragon Children landed at Bai Tu Long. Great legend and, with a bit of imagination, you could see dragons swooping and diving amongst the mist shrouded bays.


We had eventually decided to book the Indochina Junk, Prince, for the 2 night/3 day tour, after lengthy internet searches, because it seemed to offer the best itinerary for us - a good amount of kayaking around the bay’s islands and a small boat, accommodating 8 passengers, to return to at night. There were numerous travel companies that book this trip, but we had had a good recommendation about Handspan so booked it through them.
Our guide for the trip, Qioi (pronounced Zoi), met us on arrival and explained what would be happening over the next few days down to the finest detail. Everything seemed extremely well organized and as long as we didn’t mess up their itinerary we felt we would be fine. We were allocated Prince III, the newest Junk in the fleet, and as we climbed aboard we knew we had made the right choice. The Junk had an indoor and outdoor eating area, sun deck and surprisingly spacious bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. All throughout the cruise the food was very well done and, although the portions were small, after about 8 courses you certainly weren’t left hungry. The only negative aspect of the trip was the cost of drinks, both soft and alcoholic, which were ridiculously expensive. So much so in fact that not much drinking was done, so in the end the company probably lost out! We were also very lucky with the 6 other travelers we were sharing this part of our adventure with and they certainly helped to make it an enjoyable and memorable trip.

After a quick introduction to the crew, a fine speech by the Captain (well we think it was good) and lots of applause we were underway. We have been extremely privileged to have lunch in some of the most beautiful locations in the world and, as we ate our first lunch aboard whilst gliding amongst the craggy limestone karsts with no other boats in sight and where the sight of fire breathing dragons would not be out of place, we both realized that this stunningly atmospheric scenery would be somewhere near the top of the list. We felt that kayaking here was the best way to see how the karsts have formed over millions of years and, as the ethereal atmosphere heightens the imagination, it is possible to see delicate unearthly forms carved in the hard limestone surfaces. The ghostly quality of this scenery was intensified by the slight haze which hung over the bay and rendered the distant karsts strange and insubstantial shapes looming out of the green tranquil waters. We were blown away. After successfully negotiating our way around some of the karsts in the kayak we had some free time before our dinner was served. The crew loved to make a show of the dinner with the chef drawing on his artistic talents to carve beautiful creations out of various vegetables. Although some night fishing for squid proved a little unproductive it did provide some good bonding for all the men on the boat and just goes to show that no matter what language you speak there are certain things that can bring you together - football being the other.

After a brilliant nights sleep in a surprisingly comfortable bed we opened the curtains in the morning to feast our eyes on the view - wow. Our itinerary for the second day would include more kayaking, some swimming and a BBQ lunch on a wild beach and a visit to a fishing village. Kayaking would be considerably longer than the previous day and after a couple of hours the strain was beginning to tell on some and the arms were beginning to burn. But again we had a great time looking up close at the formations of the karsts and dipping into dark caves and dodging gigantic stalactites.

We headed off to the beach where we could swim and we would be presented with a delicious BBQ lunch. Unfortunately the selected beach was too rocky for swimming and although Chris tried it was to no avail and we had to make do with combing the beach for beautiful shells which were being washed up in the surf as we stood there and eat a delicious lunch whilst sat at the table and under parasols which the staff had man handled to the shore. A quick go at that other universal sport - football - and we were back in the kayaks and heading back to the junk. As swimming had been impossible from the beach we decided to have a dip off the boat and amidst riotous laughter the crew joined us jumping into the cool water from the top deck with their uniforms on and showing off as they performed well practiced back flips.

During the afternoon we made our way to a fishing village to see how they lived and were convinced this would be a touristy gimmick. However, we were really pleasantly surprised as we firstly had Vietnamese tea with the head of the village, who happily kept filling up our empty cups, and then we visited the primary school. Apparently the children only attend school up until the age of 10 and then they start fishing with their parents. Not ideal, but the Indochina Junk Company are looking to help aid the cost of a secondary school, as part of the privilege of taking foreign visitors there - lets hope so. Also, as the fishermen in the village are all related in order to marry the young men have to visit other fishing villages to find their wives. We did feel slightly embarrassed as we had to present our gifts of pens and note books to one of the children as they all watched and clapped. We did feel a bit uncomfortable at this as their gratitude seemed to outweigh our meager gifts. After this we were rowed around the village and surrounding area by one of the local women. They made it look incredibly easy to manoeuvre the boats, but after a couple of the guys tried manly to have a go they realized there was definitely a knack to it. Another delicious dinner and a much more successful attempt at squid fishing finished off a really great day.

The last day saw us visiting one of the caves in the area. It had until about a year ago been inhabited by some fishermen and recently the Indochina Company had been given permission to take foreign visitors there. The family had been relocated to a fishing village, where (so the company says) they were provided with a nice house - lets hope so. Unfortunately some of the stalactites had been chopped off to make ornaments - absolutely criminal - but it was still extremely pretty and not a bad place to have a home. A very early lunch saw us back in the harbour and ready to disembark and head back to Hanoi. An absolutely brilliant time was had by all, although I have to admit to still having a lingering desire to see Halong Bay, the "Bay of Descending Dragons". We headed back to Hanoi where the peace and quiet which we had enjoyed for the last few days would be brutally disturbed by the tumultuous traffic noise.

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Photos

Better than a bus
and better than British Rail too

Little Dragons
simply stunning

Are you paddling
Yes dear honest!

Home on the Bay
Prince 3

Adventurers
Didn't look so cool 3 hours later

Beautiful Bay
The dragons kids are here too

Asian Sunset
Beautiful

Leading the way
Looks easy doesn't it

Relaxed
but don't forget to duck

Bye Bye
now where's my tip

H & S
The only time anybody in Vietnam was bothered

Wheres the village footy pitch
Water polo more like

Travelling Companions
Qioi in the middle

Nearly Wookey
well maybe in a few hundred thousand years