Halong Bay

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Halong Bay, 17th - 19th May 2010

Monday 17th and we were up bright and early to catch our bus to Halong Bay. We climbed onto the bus to be welcomed by Tony our tour guide for the three days. Tony, although Vietnamese spoke very good English, but also had a Hi De Hi approach to his tour guide persona which we could see could get a little annoying. After 3.5 hours on a mini bus on the mad, mad roads of Vietnam (witnessing double overtaking towards onward traffic) we finally pulled into the harbour area of Halong Bay and after a brief wait we boarded our junk boat which would be our home and means of transport for the next couple of days.

Halong Bay is a mystical and inspiring natural wonder where 3,000 or more incredible islands made of limestone rise from its emerald waters with its caves and inlets leading to hidden and secluded bays. The place was truly magical! A junk boat is the common word for the type of traditional boats that sail the water here. Made all of wood with large masts and consisting of a couple of decks. Once boarded we were soon tug tugging out of the harbour heading towards the mountainous islands in the distance. We sat and relaxed on the sun terrace on the top of the boat and taking in the spectacular scenery. Within an hour we had docked next to an island which housed some huge caves. The caves were beautiful, we stepped through a small entrance and were greeted with a large cave with stalagmite type structures hanging down from the ceiling, made from limestone and some even looking as though they had been individually carved. The only thing that let it down was the volume of people in the cave, everyone was herded round following a path and if you stopped to look at something for too long a back log would occur. However, the second cave Doddy and I went to which was about 10 minutes walk away was deserted and even bigger than the first. There was a big stream of natural light that came in from one end casting light and creating shadows, producing a very mystical feel.

Back on the boat and we cruised further into Halong Bay passing more of the rugged limestone islands and admiring the scenery from our sun loungers on top of the boat. After about an hour we reached some of the floating villages that inhabit the bay. The villages are literally as they sound, bamboo huts built onto large blue drums so that they float on the water. They are mainly used to home fishing communities that use the bay as their source of income. From the village we were able to get on a smaller boat that took us through a cave to an area in one of the limestone inlets that opened to a large body of water in which we could swim. We jumped straight in and enjoyed cooling off in the refreshing water. This smaller boat then took us closer to the floating village and we were able to see some of the children being taught in the floating school.

Back on our big junk we cruised for another couple of hours admiring the scenery and getting to know some of the others on our boat. Just as the sun was going down we arrived in the place we were to spend the night and drop the anchor. It was another spot where we were able to swim and so after watching Doddy and with a bit of encouragement I found myself jumping off the top deck (approximately 20 ft) into the water below, brilliant! We had dinner on the boat and then went back up to the roof deck to have a few drinks and chat to everyone else. It was a great evening, not only was the scenery beautiful with a clear sky, bright stars and a light mist that settled on the bottom of some of the islands, but we had a great bunch of people on the boat to share it with too. There was a mix of nationalities who all seemed to share the same passion for life and travelling.

The next morning we were up at 6.30 am. We were supposed to have kayaked the day before but due to some shoddy organisation we had run out of time. So at 6.45 am we were sat in a kayak ready to go. It was actually a nice way to start the day and allowed us to get up close to the islands. We then got back on our boat and cruised once more through the bay to Cat Ba Island, one of the larger and inhabited islands of the bay. Once there we knew we were heading to a national park for a hike. There had been no mention of it being difficult so we just thought we were off for a nice stroll but luckily we decided to put our hiking boots on and give them one more wear. It was fortunate we did as the terrain soon turned wet and muddy and began to get steep. Others were not so fortunate and had to do it in their flip flops and one guy even did it in bare feet when his flip flops broke. Nice of Tony our guide to give everyone a heads up before we set off. Anyway, climb and scramble we did and after 50 minutes we reached the top and the views we were greeted with were worth it. 360 degree views of lush vegetation and mountainous terrain. The next challenge was to get down which although hairy in places wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

We then drove to Cat Ba town where we would be spending the night. We passed on the trip to Monkey Island as we had already had our fair share of monkey islands and also couldn’t stand to be frog marched by Tony any more so instead we went for a massage with one of the other girls from our boat. Feeling relaxed once more we had a stroll round Cat Ba. It was a nice sea side town with a large fishing port and long promenade.

After dinner we went with around 8 others from our boat to a small pavement type bar for some bia hoi. The owners were really friendly and we all spent a couple of hours chatting. Doddy and I were also relieved to know that we weren’t the only ones who Tony was driving mad, it seemed the general consensus within the group! That evening I also became the proud owner of a gecko. One of the guys in our group called Dimitri was from Russia and although he was a genuinely nice guy and very knowledgeable about nature he was also a little naive. I had said in jest how I thought geckos were cute and that I would like one so half an hour later Dimitri appears with a gecko in his hand still alive and tells me I can keep it. Apparently all I’d need to do was keep it in a match box and feed it crushed cockroaches every few days. I could then take it home with me (he advised me to keep it in my hand luggage on the plane as it would freeze in the main baggage hold) and then put it in a proper container when I got back. I thanked him profusely for getting it for me but decided I didn’t want the risk of customs catching me with a gecko in my handbag so I let it go.

After breakfast the following morning we were transported back to our boat so we could cruise back to Halong City, enjoying once more the stunning scenery. Back in Halong City we had to wait over an hour for our delayed bus to take us back to Hanoi. During our stop for lunch a few people including Doddy and I began to get fidgety as we had a night bus to catch that evening. As there were around 15 people needing to catch various different night buses that evening Tony allowed one of the buses ‘an express bus’ as he liked to call it to set off earlier. After about 1.5 hours we pulled into a service station for a quick toilet stop. Five minutes later the other bus pulled up with everyone else on it. Apparently they’d set off 20 minutes after us but had made up the time. What was even more ironic was that when we got back to Hanoi the other bus was already there. Our so called express bus had got in last.

However, we still had around 45 minutes to spare to stock on some supplies for the journey. It was also nice to be back in Hanoi. Although many people on our boat hadn’t liked the city both Doddy and I did. Sure, it was busy, noisy, smelly and quite difficult to cross the road but that’s what made it fun. The people were friendly, though seemed a lot more obsessed with money than the Laotians, but once we’d got used to that then you could see their warm side too.

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