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Published: October 9th 2009
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This was the reason we decided on Vietnam in the first place, Halong Bay. Breathtaking beauty is only one simple explanation of this absolutely GORGEOUS place. It is by far one of the most beautiful places we have both ever been to. It's almost as though you are dreaming, being in a place this beautiful. Everywhere we would look, you just wanted to stop and just breathe....PHENOMENAL! The drive from Hanoi to Halong is about 3 and 1/2 hrs. We were picked up by a tiny bus, along with 6 other people and all our packs. Lets just say the ride wasn't like sitting 1st class, not even standard economy, domestic style.
The ride was worth every ache and sweat molecule....the moment you could see the massive limestone mountains, we both looked at each other and couldn't help but smile uncontrollably. It was so much more than we had ever hoped for!!!!
Halong bay is extremely tourist driven. The most recent info I could find states about 1.9 million visitors a year, this includes Vietnamese as well as Foreign tourists! Everyone who visits Vietnam, goes to Halong Bay. I was extremely worried, many things about the trip were creeping
up on me and trying to ruin my enjoyment....first of which related to a recent Junk (house boat) sinking and 6 people dying!!!! With the recent influx of the Typhoons in South East Asia, the weather in Halong Bay had been unpredictable. The last Typhoon had gone through about a week ago and crashed through the center of Vietnam, devastating the area and making a mess of the weather. I had looked at the weather satelite (yup..I'm a big geek like that) and there were 2 typhoon type storms book-ending Halong Bay!!!! I was terrified. So I started asking questions...many of them, I think I might have annoyed a few people but ah well I felt a bit better after all the asking!
The story of the sinking was, this unknown company had built a "new and improved" Deluxe Junk with an extra floor making it too tall to sail and be safe. Of course if you remember in Vietnam..rules aren't rules so it was a new boat and a new captain and he wanted to show off the boat. A group of foreigners really wanted to go our on Halong Bay but due to the weather uncertainty the
Halong Bay
Taken from one of the exits of the caves we explored tour operators were canceling trips, so this new company took these people out...even not having the boat cleared for safety....the boat hit a small wave and tipped over because it was top heavy and the people drowned!
I made sure our company was well established, the boat had been running for a while and we had an exit strategy planned out in case of a sinking ship! I know you are all groaning...but I'm a little safety psychotic...I can't help it sometimes! At any rate, the weather was perfect and there were no glitches what so ever on the boat!
Huong was the name of our Travel Guide and Al and I really got a long with him well. He was an honest, gentle man who cared very much about the happiness of his guests. His English was superb and he had a great sense of humor. We really took on a liking for him and he taught us many things about Vietnam and the history of the War and Halong Bay.
Our first night we spent on the Junk, it was 3 stories, the bottom 2 floors had beautiful rooms, flat screen TV's, aircon and our
own private bathrooms and showers with hot water! We really thought we were in heaven. We were picturing just bunks...such a nice surprise! It was peaceful and serene, we felt so lucky! We woke early for the sunrise, it was muffled by the huge Limstone rock but was still beautiful to be up before everyone else. We sailed through the day to Cat Ba Island and spent the rest of the day and the night on Cat Ba.
Cat Ba had a significant part in the Vietnam War...it housed 3 hospitals that were hidden in the mountains. There are tons of caves all over the island and the people created these hospitals within the caves. We visited one of the hospitals...it was 3 floors! There was even a pool created for the people in case they got bored while mending. I was absolutely shocked. They said cave hospital and I thought exactly that, room in a cave....no no no, it was definitely 3 stories of well crafted cement hidden in a mountain of green!
After the hospital caving we did some trekking up to a water tower in the middle of the island. Huong had said the climb
was "easy" and that Al was fine in his flip flops (thongs)....yeah well not so much an easy trek! It was about an hour climb..straight up!! By the top you had to hold on to tree limbs and do a bit of rock climbing. The view from the top was amazing, so green and lush! There was a metal water tower that had a sign stating only 5 people up at a time. I started callously up climbing until I realized the stairs were basically hanging over the cliff and they were extremely rusty...I panicked of course and ran back down. Al, being such an amazing husband went up and took photos for the both of us! 😉 When he came down he said I wouldn't of been happy up there, there were wooden planks for floor paneling and many were missing.......oh dear lord......so happy we both made it back to the village safely!!!!!!!!
Over all, Halong Bay has been absolute Paradise.......next day Tower Island...bungalow style on the beach!
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