Ha Long Bay and the rapid awakening


Advertisement
Vietnam's flag
Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi
July 25th 2013
Published: July 27th 2013
Edit Blog Post

The plan was to wake up at 7, have a leisurely breakfast and shower and then catch a bus to our Halong bay tour at 8am. What actually happened was was Eireann shouting "f*%!k(MISSING) is five to eight" in my ear and us scrambling about like headless chickens, packing, washing, dressing and trying to figure out why on earth Eireanns alarm still thought we were in Manchester.
We got on an air conditioned mini bus and headed out through the Hanoi rush hour. Our guide, Tyen, is fabulous and spent the first hour of our 3 hour journey (before the roads got too bumpy) telling us all about Hanoi and things about the Vietnamese in general. Apparently there are more mopeds than people in Vietnam and Ha Noi means ascending dragon. The journey was pretty uneventful and the roads got progressively worse as we got closer to Ha Long City. (Ha Long means descending dragon) We knew we arrive when we spotted the thousands of tourists, clutching their rucksacks and being herded from one boat to another. Our boat has 3 people from Malaysia, a LOUD Dutch family of 7 and a French couple who we have spent the majority of our time with. Julien and Maud are documentary makers in Paris and their English is amazing. Once on the 'marguerite' we were given our cabin and then It was lunchtime. Eireann was very happy about this as we missed breakfast and she is like a gremlin after midnight if she isn't fed often. We had several courses, mine fish free and as Eireann is a vegetable hers was most things free (including flavour!!) This afternoon was VERY hot and with the addition of 95%!h(MISSING)umidity it was pretty unbearable! But we got on a little boat and headed to "surprising cave" I think the name was the only time surprise has been used to describe that perticular cave! It's very big but it was rammed with tourists. We had to wait to get from chamber to chamber as there were hundreds of people in our way. We had a look but wouldn't rush back unless it was just us there! The "beach" was next. It was about 100 yards of man made sand with a few feet of sea fenced off for swimming. Next to the swimming area there were about 40 boats and an industrial crane ship docked spewing all sorts of pollution into the water. It seemed like every boat within 50 miles had dropped off their passengers for a swim. The beach was rammed and the sea was full so we just sat and talked about why the Vietnamese had let things get like this. We were glad when it was time to go. On the little boat we were asked if we wanted to kayak by the loud obnoxious Dutch family. Apparently they didn't want to so they were hoping that nobody else did so it would be cancelled. Everyone else wanted to and were very glad when they were dropped off at the big boat and we had a rest from their voices for the first time. Kayaking was the best bit of the day. It was around sunset and everyone had gone away. Tyen took us so late so we didn't have to queue for anything and so we could see the floating villages go about their normal none tourist infested lives. It was lovely, peaceful and quiet. I wish it was always so lovely. Something needs to be done or in 10 years there will be nothing of beauty left. after kayaking it was back to the big boat for fruit, a shower then dinner. The fruit is AMAZING! There are these tiny little pineapples, about the size of a pear, and they are so sweet! I think all the sweetness of a big pineapple is condensed into a smaller space. We are hoping to get fruit for the train journey tomorrow as its so yummy and Vietnamese food so far has been not great. I know Thai is delicious and I know it's not that close to Thailand here but I thought there would be some comparison. So far the only thing we've liked better is the sticky rice. As part of our evening meal all the lights were turned off and the hollowed out pineapples were filled with tea lights and had little stars cut into the side. Apparently it was Vietnamese Halloween today and they use pineapples rather than pumpkins. Tomorrow we are going back to Hanoi for a few hours and then catching the over night train to hue (pronounced h-way) We didn't feel like we wanted to do another night in Hanoi. I'm sure there are plenty of things there but it was just all a bit much. Hue is an old city which is supposed to be worth a look so we thought why not! And booked our train and hotel yesterday. I will post this when I have Internet but right now I am in the middle of ha long bay sitting on the top deck listing to the sea lapping against the side of the boat. Lovely!!

Advertisement



31st July 2013

Loving the blogs mrs !! can I just say you have a way with words, loving the fact you still like sticky rice its so much better than fri ri !

Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0507s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb