Ahoy Matey - Halong Bay

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Day 5/6 Halong Bay

We hopped on the tour bus on Monday (1/12) at a bright and early 8AM for our 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Halong Bay. It was quite an uneventful ride except for the occasionally pointing and mouth dropping we did when a motorbike passed by with a dead cow or pig on the back of it.

The dock was filled with tourist, but we quickly got on our boat and braved the windy day up on the top deck, checking out the views from the harbor. After, a bit we were off to discover the islands. Our boat veered left while the others continued straight ahead (the benefit of booking through a hostel). Halong Bay consist of about 3,000 islands that cover 580 square miles, in the NE corner of Vietnam. As far as the eye can see there are forested limestone towers protruding from the water.

We continued to sail for about an hour or so, while we eat lunch and played cards. We eventually pulled up to this floating dock and departed the boat for our kayaks. It would be lovely story to say we kayaked effortlessly thru the bay, soaking up the beautiful scenery, contemplating the meaning of life. Rather, Genny paddled and steered with all her might, while Stephanie started to complain about being tired about 6 stokes into the 2 hour journey. We eventually hit our stride and caught up with the rest of the pack and didn't leave the side of our tour guides the rest of the kayaking trip. They took us to a secluded lagoon and then to see an usual rock formations in the area that looked like a man's profile. Unfortunately, the sea was very choppy and we had to skip seeing the caves.

We returned back to the boat - soaked beyond belief and a bit sore and bruised from our "workout", we rested before dinner with some friendly card games of Gin Rummy. We were treated to a yummy dinner where we broke our "no meat" mantra for some quite nice chicken and beef. After dinner, we had quite a laugh with our newly made English friend - John (18 - baby baby) and then continued to play cards/ drinking games (B.S, Kings, Spit) with other fellow travelers on the tour. It was a mini UN with representatives from Holland, Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, and of course USA (leading the pack with 3)! The tour guides really wanted to have a dance party, but it just ended up with 3-4 Vietnamese guys drunk off of rice wine, swaying back and forth to really horrible techno remix's. (For example, they played a techno remix of Mama's and Papa's, California Dreaming). Being exhausted we snuck off to bed early (well around 12) knowing that the wake up call was coming at 7am!

Next day was really chilled out, after a small breakfast we discussed US politics with Folkgert (our new Dutch friend) and soaked up some sun on the top deck while sailing to Cat Ba Island. Lunch saw us waving goodbye to part of the group staying on Cat Ba and welcoming back Trinity an Aussie we met in Hanoi. We departed the boat, boarded the minivan for our trip back to Hanoi. Only a few close calls (and by close I mean Steph could see that the other driver's forehead pores!) on our way back, we arrived safely at the Hostel.

Our new German friend Annette invited us to tag along to the Water Puppet Show that night. After a stroll and quick dinner of 'Pho' we made our way to the theater for the 8pm show. For the price of a beer, the show was definitely worth a go ($2.25). There was traditional music, singing, costumes along with the puppets that were being maneuvered from behind bamboo curtains. It looked as of they were dancing on the water by themselves. There were around 15 'acts' with each telling a story of daily life in Vietnam (ie: kids playing in water, fishing, dance of the phoenix etc)

After the performance we called it a night which was a good idea considering the itinerary for the next day...

xoxo

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