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Published: October 27th 2005
15 minutes late. I wonder if our bus to Halong Bay will even show up. My apprehensions relieved as it makes an appearence 35 minutes late. 4 hours of chatting and getting a feel for the group. It's a pretty good one. 2 girls from London, two women from Orange, Australia. A couple from both Norway and France and a man from Singapore.
We arrive at Halong City. A huge feast awaits us. After we head for the dock, in true Vietnamese style, we are left waiting for 5 minutes. In Vietnam, 5 minutes means anywhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours. Today 5 minutes ment 1 hour. No instructions, no information and we couldn't even see our guide. Eventually our boat arrives. Apparently it has been sitting in Halong Bay when it should have been picking us up. 2 hours late already with bleak grey sky and a few ominous looking clouds hanging overhead as if ready to start a spontanious downpour. The Halong Bay experience was not starting well.
A good 15 minutes into the trip, Gemma, one of the English girls says, "Its nice without the horns". It sounded silly at first but on reflection, it
made perfect sence. The horns are unremitting on land and especially in the big cities like Hanoi. The sudden peace raised the excitment levels. We hadn't been out of a city or large town since we got to Phnom Penh, so the solice was well appreciated. The scenery was begining to get better aswell. The magnificent limestone pinnacles are a sight to see. It's one of those things that you just have to see while in the area, to not is a crime.
Once we arrived at our destination in the bay, we were "treated" to a walk through of a cave in one of the islands. Sounded like a really good explatory thing to do, if you could ignore the 300 other tourists hearded like sheep through the caves as well. The cave themsleves were rather good. Forever cynical, Rohan and I were thinking about the similar things we have seen that are better, like the Jenolan Caves back home. It was still pretty good except for our guide who kept pointing out all the animals you can see in the rock formations. Maybe you need to be on drugs but I'm afraid I missed them.
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Halong Bay 3
Yeah. Still niceon the boat we cruise to an opposing island. The man was adamant that we were to go kayaking and miss the view from the top of this huge pinnicle. Stuff that! It was cold, grey and miserable. Not good kayaking weather. Rohan and I climbed to the top with the girls from London, got a few happy snaps and made our way back down. As the grey turned to dark we enjoyed another feast and drank the boat out of beer. The stars were out so it was a good sign for a clear day tomorrow. We we chatting so long untill we looked down and it was 1am, and we were going to get up for the sunrise... hmmm
5:45am. We awake. There was no sunrise, it just got light. Such a dissapointing view we get from the boat. More grey skies. The sun does manage to poke it's head through for a little while but generally, all grey. After breakfast and a small trip to Cat Ba Island, the rest of the group leaves us for a night there and we head back.
BEEEP BEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are back on smoggy nosiy land. We are
Halong Bay 4
Get the idea yet? told to wait for our driver for 5 minutes. Another 5 Vietnamese minutes passes (45 minutes real time) Somehow this man who had never met finds us and we hop in his van.
Ducking and weaving to avoid rubbish flung into the gutters. I am back in Hanoi. It's a strange sight, all the rubbish is thrown there during the day, swept into a pile and burnt in the night. No wonder there is so much polution here. Gazing at the hypnotic sight of traffic taking part in a delicate ballet while sipping my cheap beer. Sitting at a small eatery on the walkway ordering food from a woman who can't speak a word of english. Bargaining for goods in my limited Vietnamese. This has been an interesting place but I am over it now, I am looking foreward to our flight to Vientiane tomorrow.
Thats all for now. PEACE CAMO
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Anne
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Lovely Halong Bay
What great photos Cam. The Bay looks beautiful.I'm glad to see you looking so well.Interesting mix of nationalitys on your boat which is one of the good things about travel. take care Love Mum