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Published: July 30th 2006
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At The Port
What a bunch eh? We got up early and caught our bus to Halong City, where we would meet the boat that would take us on a tour of Halong Bay. The ticked included meals, however we had heard that the alcohol they sell on the boat is extortionately expensive so we stocked up on cheap Dalat Wine the previous night and smuggled it on with us!
After waiting around for what seemed like hours in the scorching heat, watching the complete chaos of all the boats trying to push their way through to the harbour, we boarded and set off. Halong Bay is beautiful; it is a complete maze of limestone cliffs protruding at random intervals from the sea. The rock formations are staggered with cracks and steps making this place a rock climber’s heaven. The scenery was reminiscent of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, however unfortunately the water did not look quite as clean. We were all distraught and genuinely angry when we went past a big collection of plastic bottles, coke cans and other general waste that somebody had obviously recently dumped over the side of their boat. It’s amazing that this is a world heritage site and people are destroying
it because they’re too lazy to find a bin.
We ate lunch, which was surprisingly good, then set off on our tour. The first stop was the Hang Sung Sot cave. Firstly, I’m really not a big fan of tours in general; you feel like you are being herded around like cattle and are restricted as to the amount of exploring that you can do. After a short climb and a lot of faffing around by our guide - who seemed to be having some trouble with our tickets - we entered the cave. Now it really wasn’t what we had expected. The cave was vast, with amazing looking stalagmites, stalactites and other rock formations, however unfortunately some idiot had decided it would be a good idea to randomly place green, purple, pink and red florescent lights all over the walls and ceiling. We expected to see a DJ booth in the corner and a barman selling Smirnoff Ice, accompanied by the latest cheesy chart entry being played at full volume. We were also shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other tourists trundling through on various different tours, much like ours. We walked around fake cemented walkways (I wouldn’t
mind if the walkways weren’t made to look like the surrounding rock -it just gave the whole place such an artificial feel) until we reached (and I quote) “a much enchanting place”. This turned out to be a rock spouting the most pathetic of fountains that looked like a poor attempt at a water feature on one of those ‘garden makeover’ programmes! The guide was harping on about fairies etc etc, but we weren’t really listening as we were concentrating so much on holding back our hysterical laughter. We felt that we had been ‘enchanted’ enough for one day by artificial lighting, concrete walkways and sprinklers that you could find at B&Q, so we made our way back to the boat.
The next stop was the floating village. This was a collection of floating houses where a community of fishermen lived. It is amazing to think that this is their home. The scenery is simply breathtaking, I couldn’t imagine waking up to that every morning! We were picked up by a few locals in a smaller boat and taken for a trip through a cave and into a lagoon. The lagoon was beautiful and the water was really warm.
I was looking forward to jumping in for a swim until my attention was drawn to a sanitary towel floating right next to the boat. As you can imagine, the idea of swimming rapidly became less appealing! We saw a cave and asked the locals if we could go inside. The answer was yes so the boat moored up and we all jumped off to explore. Unfortunately the shadows were playing tricks on us as when we got inside we realised that the cave was about 5 metres square with graffiti on the walls. Needless to say it was a short stop, so we jumped back on the boat went back to the mothership.
There were a number of people on the tour who were staying at a local hotel instead of on the boat, so we dropped them off at a nearby pier and went to find a suitable place to sleep the night. I must admit that this part of the trip was the most enjoyable. We just cruised around the islands for about an hour, sitting on the top deck, taking in the scenery, drinking a few beers in the afternoon sun. It was so relaxing!
The water here is very enclosed due to the number of islands, therefore it is totally flat. Half the time you don’t even realize you are on a boat it’s so calm. We watched the sun go down then decided to go for a swim. We had excellent fun jumping from the side of the boat - which is actually higher than you think! And then did some kayaking around the islands. We were having a great time, but after around an hour we realised that it was almost dark and we were unsure as to where our boat was so decided to call it a night!
We woke up the next morning looking forward to doing some more kayaking (we were told by the travel agent on booking that the second day would be mainly kayaking), however we were disappointed to hear that after picking the others up we were traveling straight back to Halong City for lunch and then home! They weren’t even going to stop for a swim! After arguing our point they agreed to stop for a half an hour for a dip. We didn’t get kayaks, but spent a very enjoyable half hour jumping
from the top deck like nutters. A few sore bellies, backs, arses and balls later we decided that we’d done enough jumping and headed back to Halong City for a bite to eat.
Overall we had an excellent time and I would definitely recommend Halong Bay to anyone who goes to the North of Vietnam. The only thing I would say is to try to just get a cruise rather than a tour. The Hang Sung Sot cave is interesting but by no means a highlight and if you get some kayaks you can paddle around the floating villages and find caves by yourself, rather than being herded around like livestock. By far the most enjoyable part of the trip was sitting on the top deck, soaking up the rays and enjoying the breathtaking scenery and I could have done just that for a whole week! It was such a lovely break from the hustle and bustle of urban Vietnam.
Unfortunately Hanoi and the dreaded bus to Vientiane in Laos was calling us, so we made our way back to the city and booked it up.
Until next time my friends, oh and just wanted to thank
Deano and Rich for the use of their photos. Surprise surprise, our camera was once again being about as useful as a chocolate teapot!
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mum&simon
non-member comment
Love the group jump photo! And you all look really happy and relaxed on the deck of the boat... When you've finished your travelling - and made your fortune - you can BUY one of those boats, hire a crew, and take everyone on a cruise...(and we'll travel there by private jet, NOT bus.) Oh, and although it was a shame you didn't get to go kayaking, we have only this to say...HORSEY ISLAND! We were very 'enchanted' by the fountain, although we would agree that from the photos it does look VERY Thorpe Parkish. Jumped the grey waves on Old Felixstowe beach with Hannah today and built sand castles - how different from you! be happy love from us xxx