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Published: August 19th 2009
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Casting off
Into the beautiful waters of Halong Bay Halong Bay
Having booked my boat ticket for Halong Bay through my hotel in Ninh Binh rather then through a travel agency in Hanoi, I had to catch an early morning bus North in order to meet up with the rest of my group. The convenience of avoiding an unnecessary stop in Hanoi was partially offset by the fact that I would need to catch a local bus to Halong City. I was slightly nervous about handing over $100 cash to my hotel and then boarding a public bus North with no idea of where to go or who to meet up with when I got there, but adopting my newfound philosophy of ‘we’ll see what I get’, I decided to shrug my shoulders and trust that it would all work out ok. The bus ride was exactly what I expected it to be; uncomfortably hot and ripe with the smell of fresh vomit. I am so glad that I don’t get carsick. Eventually I arrived…in the middle of nowhere. We had literally pulled over on the side of the highway, where I was shuffled off the bus and into a waiting taxi. Unsurprisingly, I was expected to pay the
Karsts
Rising up from the sea $5 fare into town, even though I had been assured that the transportation was all included into the price of my ticket. Deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing about, I got out of the taxi and waited for my tour group to join me.
I waited for 2 hours.
The bright side is that this gave me the time to hunt up a decent bottle of wine, as I had already decided to get plowed that night onboard. Finally, the group, led by a small nervous man by the name of Mr. Denny, joined me and we all loaded onto our boat. Having been told in Ninh Binh that they would be squeezing me in, it didn’t come as a surprise to discover that my room was likely a converted broom closet. It has just enough room for a single bed, and did not boast a window or a working shower. But after hearing that all of the windows on the boat were shuttered closed anyways, and that 1 room had a horrid leak in the ceiling, I decided to revel in my privacy and enjoy my little haven of calm.
I quickly made friends with this
hilarious Irish couple named Valerie and Eoin, as well as a Bangladesh-New Zealander and her comedian-funny boyfriend named Art from Britain. To complete the odd pairing, the couple was also traveling with an eccentric Indian genius who had been paid by his university (Cambridge) to take a non-educational vacation. I can only assume that the reason they did this was to attempt to instill some social skills into him, as it didn’t take me long to realize that he was seriously lacking in this department. Being the odd man out of that group, and me being the odd female out in mine, it was only natural that we would pair up. I was mildly regretting this fact by the time we got around to kayaking, as my partner seemed to feel that the only muscle worth exerting was the one in his head. Aren’t these intellectual sorts supposed to be good at rowing? It’s a good thing that I can handle a kayak, as he was certainly no lightweight and the current was strong in some places. I suppose that I should be grateful that he sat there quietly and didn’t attempt to wrest control of our vessel, as this
Heading to the caves
First stop - Batcave! would likely have resulted in us tipping out and swimming with the jellyfish. All the same though, it would have been nice if he had at least put up the pretense of paddling.
We ended the day at a small island where I climbed up the 434 steps to the peak in order to watch the sunset. Breathtaking.
That night, I snuck my smuggled bottle of wine up to the roof of the boat and proceeded to get drunk for the first time in months. I was in good company and we passed away the night laughing at Art’s extremely realistic impression of Mr Denny, and listening to travel stories from the other passengers on board. I even learned that one of the couples on the boat was in the hotel room next to me almost 2 months earlier while in Laos. Small world. Throwing in the towel at around midnight, I cautiously climbed down to my room and collapsed into bed. I didn’t stay there long however, as the gentle rocking of the boat compounded the dizzy spinning in my head and sent me scrambling for the toilet. I didn’t get sick, but decided to hang out
Batcave!
Spooky, slippery, and scenic in the bathroom for awhile anyways. Just in case.
The next morning, after ascertaining that my eyeballs were still in my head, I wandered up for breakfast. The poor attendance attested to the fact that it had been a good night. Most of the people on board were staying for a second night on the ship, however I had originally only signed up for a single night. I decided to ask Mr. Denny whether I could stay on for an additional day as I just wasn‘t ready to leave Halong Bay quite yet. I had assumed that this would be a simple matter to arrange, as my converted broom-closet would simply be sitting there empty otherwise.
Unfortunately, nothing here is as simple as it seems. Mr. Denny wanted to charge me $30 USD for staying the additional night. I, however, had learned that everyone else on board had paid $100 USD for 3 days while I had paid the same price for 2. As such, I didn’t think it was fair to charge me an additional $30 for another night. He was adamant. I offered to split the difference and pay $15. He wanted me to hand over
Halfway up...
...taking a breather the full $30 until he could contact his manager and try to work out a discount for me. I, knowing that once the money was out of my hands I would likely never see it again, refused. He accused me of thinking he was ‘a bad boy’ and not trusting him. I reassured him that I thought that he was a nice boy but I didn’t know whether his manager was the same. He started yelling. I started massaging my aching head. The other passengers onboard threatened to revolt.
Eventually, Mr. Denny and the rest of the passengers left for a hiking expedition on one of the many islands. It had been decided that I would stay onboard and wait for Mr. Denny’s friend Mr. Lucky, who I hoped would be more reasonable and speak better English. He ended up being both of these things, and yet was just as unyielding. In the middle of our negotiations he received a call from his manager to tell him that they had booked my broom closet and so there was no way that I could stay onboard anyways. Negotiations closed. Val and Eoin had already offered me a spot in their
Birds-eye view
Up at sunset point...moments before sunset room, but when I mentioned this idea Mr. Lucky firmly shot it down. He said he was afraid that I would take a picture of me sleeping on their floor (or whatever), post it on the internet, and destroy the reputation of this cruise ship. Um…thanks for the idea?
Recognizing defeat, I got off at the next port and caught the bus back to Hanoi. I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to my newfound friends from the boat. I hoped that when they found me missing they would toss Mr. Denny overboard in retaliation for having had me unceremoniously shuttled off the boat myself. This wasn’t far from the case.
Despite the annoying way that the boat cruise ended, I still had a fantastic time and couldn‘t have asked for a nicer group of people. And like I told Val later, I would rather have been ripped off and have gotten to spend time with the people onboard that night, then have paid the proper price and not met them at all. Sometimes things just work out for the best.
Signing out,
Jen
Ps. I found out from Val and Eoin that my
Sunset
End of a beautiful day room actually did stay empty that night. Turns out that Mr. Lucky, tired of arguing with me, lied about that particular detail.
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