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Published: October 11th 2009
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5/1/09
Ha Long Bay
The bus turned up at 8am to take us on our 4 hour bus trip to Ha Long City. Our guide Duc picked us up and luckily Zo and I had 3 seat for the 2 of us because of my need for leg room. The journey was very interesting crossing the Red River and headed across the beautiful Vietnamese countryside, via rice fields and mountains.
We arrive at midday, and had to wait for half hour for our captain to get his boat sorted. We got a nice rocky boat trip to our 3 storey boat. Ha Long Bay is made up of 1969 islands which span over 1553 square kilometers. Ha long means 'dragon descending' and local legend tells of a celestial dragon and her children, sent by the jade emperor to stop an invasion, which spat our great quantities of pearls to form island and razor sharp mountain chains in the path of the enemy fleet.
We had lunch on the boat and got to me the rest of the guys on the boat. Zo and I were the only English on there and the was a veritable plethora of nationalities, ranging from Polish to kiwi. Zo had to sit on the vegetarian table (due to her fish allergy), which was later nicknamed the retard table! She was lucky to have lunch with the 2 Polish lesbians, turned out to be sisters and the most annoying Austrian woman we have ever met - remember her for later reference! After lunch we went to check into our room - we had the best room and were generally treated like kings the whole time. We now think that they may have thought we were newly weds! The boat then traveled for a couple of hours through the most breathtaking scenery until we made it to the surprise cave.
The climb up the many steps took us down hard and caused a major sweat. Not as much as the fat Aussie, who had a special towel to mop his bald head!! The cave is amazing and massive - the guide like to make out that the surprise is a stone in the shape of a penis but it is just the shear size of it.
Back on the boat we got and off to the floating village (like the ones in
Top Gear) to do some kayaking. Zo was a bit apprehensive but once in she was like a duck to water. We spent and hour and a half kayaking around the island, me and the back leaving the steering late to scare Zo!!
Back on the big boat and off to more up in a protected bay for the night. Had dinner, Zo still on the retard table, and met a nice Singaporean lad called David and his kiwi wife Julie. They were the only other drinkers on the boat, except for the funniest Indian guy we have ever met - reminded us of Apu in the simpsons. Went and sat out on upper deck with quite a few beers, looked at the stars and had a really good laugh!
Up early the next day for breakfast, David feeling very rough - couldn't take it at his old age! We moved onto a small boat and headed off to Cat Ba Island for a cycle. We cycled 6km to a small village and went for a preamble through the jungle to possibly the worst cave we have ever seen. Then back on the bikes for the 6km return
- sorry to keep saying it but the scenery was stunning and probably our favourite part of the trip. The Yank and the Mexican got a motorbike for the trip because they are lazy!! Back onto the small boat to go have lunch on a deserted beach - had to get on a small rocky boat for our journey and then walk on a floating bridge - was like being on 'Total Wipeout' TV program. We then sailed to monkey island which is habited by a load of monkey. We were told by Duc that we probably wouldn't see the monkeys - how wrong he was. they were very aggressive and one of them bit the poor annoying Austrian girl - what a shame!! Instead of going to hospital, she thought that a wash in the seas salt water would get rid of the possible rabies and hep B!! Back on boat and off to Cat Ba Town for the night.
Cat Ba Island was declared a national park in 1986 in and effort to protect it's diverse ecosystems, which range form off shor coral reefs and coastal mangrove swamps to tropical evergreen forest. We again got the best
deal and our hotel over looked the harbour. We went out for a few beers and watched the most beautiful sunset. Up early and back on the small boat to meet the big boat back to Ha Long City. After lunch we we back on the 4 hour journey to Hanoi.
Back in Hanoi and went out for a meal at Highway 4 - you have to sit on the floor and made my legs go numb. This was the best meal so far and we had buffalo and ostrich croquettes. Went to half man half noodle bar and met a couple of English girls who got chased by a taxi driver trying to hit them with his helmet, crash helmet that is, all because they wouldn't give him 25000 VND - 75p!!!
Next day stayed around and chilled, waiting for our sleeper train to Sapa.
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Fuff
non-member comment
How fab!
Hi Tom and Zoe How fab your trip sounds so far! What a great experience! It's lovely to hear all your news and see the photos-isn't technology clever? I guess you didn't have any of the bad storms? Thank God. Hope everything continues to be so perfect Much luv Fuff xx