Halong Bay

January 8th

Today we had an early start to catch the 3 hour bus to Halong City, about 150 km east of Hanoi. We were with a small group of 15 people total, all whities. There were 5 Brits, 9 Aussies, and Kel. And our Vietnamese guide, Zhung. We had booked the tour through the Kangaroo Cafe. Although we prefer to do most things on our own, it was definitely worthwhile to have an organized tour to Halong Bay.

We had lunch as a group at a Vietnamese restaurant in Halong City. The food just kept coming and coming. Lots of fresh seafood, as the majority of industry in Halong Bay is fishing. Kel had mentioned earlier that she was vegetarian along with another girl. They sat near each other and were served egg, cabbage and roasted peanuts. (Sitting directly across from the guy alergic to peanuts.) We boarded a junk (boat) to cruise the rest of the day around Halong Bay. The boat slept about 20 people, enough for our group plus the crew. It was sort of a houseboat, with 3 levels, and very nice. We spent most of the time out on the top deck enjoying the gorgeous scenery.

Halong Bay has over 3000 limestone islands jutting out of the emerald green Gulf of Tonkin, and covers an area of 1500 sq km. It is also a World Heritage site. Ha Long means "Where the dragon descends to the sea." There is a legend that the islands were created by a dragon that lived in the mountains. As it ran towards the coast, its tail carved out the valleys and crevasses. As the dragon jumped into the ocean, the areas dug up by the dragon filled with water, leaving only the highest parts visible. Sailors have reported seeing a huge, mysterious creature known as the Tarasque, haunting Halong Bay. Only a few of the islands are inhabited, and still have little development. Most of them are too rocky and steep. There are tons of caves and grottoes of all sizes, and some of the islands have small sandy beaches.

We spent the afternoon sailing around and stopped at one of the many caves to have a look. We passed a small fishing village, where all of the tiny homes are floating on the water. Most of them seem to be only one room, but they have a tiny porch on the front. They are all connected by a series of wood planks, forming a path above the surface of the water. There were a surprising number of whole families out there, complete with children and many dogs. We were wondering if the children get to go to school or not. There is a school on Cat Ba Island, but it's a bit far from the fishing village. In the evening, we dropped anchor in a sheltered cove for the night, where we ate another huge meal (egg and cabbage again for the veggies) on the boat and slept in the cabins. The weather was not the greatest, as the fog and mist hid many of the views. But it was still beautiful, and the islands would slowly emerge out of the fog. It was very pirate-like...we kept waiting for a bunch of pirates to pillage our ship and steal our rum. At one point another tour boat did tie up to us temporarily and we thought this is it. The clouds lifted a bit late in the evening for us to enjoy glimpses of stars above. We sat and chatted to Marty and Megan (recentlyweds from Brisbane) about there travels and ours up on deck for a while and went to bed around 9pm.

January 9th

The boat set sail early this morning and we docked at Cat Ba Island mid-morning, just in time for breakfast at the "No Boofheads Cafe." Cat Ba Island is the largest island in Halong Bay, with a population of nearly 7,000. Most of these people are fishermen, but there are a few farms (the terrain is too rocky to support most agriculture), and many more families are catering to tourism. Nearly every building in town is either a hotel or restaurant. Half of the island and 90 sq km of the adjacent waters are a National Park. Stone tools and bones left by humans 6000-7000 years ago have been discovered at 17 different sites on the island.

We had a drive across the island and boarded a small fishing boat to reach another cave. It was smaller than the one we saw the previous day, but less disturbed as well. On the way back Zhung took control of the extremely small boat and the ride became a bit more interesting through fear of us all going for an unexpected swim. We docked safely and returned to the town, where we boarded a small boat and headed for Monkey Island, one of the islands in Halong Bay with lots of monkeys living there. There was a mother with a teeny, tiny baby clinging to her. Our guide Zhung fed the monkeys bread, cucumber and pineapple left over from lunch. The mother monkey quickly chewed the food down and stored it in her cheeks like a chipmunk. We spent about an hour on the island, climbing to the top of a huge rocky peak for a look around and relaxing on the beach.

When we returned to the town on Cat Ba, we were on our own for the evening. We had a quick hot shower and went to the Blue Note Bar for a few cocktails. We must have great timing, because it happened to be Happy Hour again, so we had a bit more than we normally would have. The tunes of Elton John were the only company we had...I guess that's the Vietnamese idea of Blue Note Jazz. The bartender fell asleep in the corner, and we had to wake him up to pay the bill. We had dinner at a Vietnamese place recommended by Zhung, and were joined by a few of the other couples on our tour. We all had a great evening. The food wasn't great, but was made up for by good company. Nige had a 10 minute massage (80c AU) at the table just after dinner. Everyone on our tour was really nice and we all got along well. We stayed in a hotel on Cat Ba Island for the night.

January 10th

It was another early start this morning, with the first stop being the "No Boofheads Cafe" for a pancake breakfast again. It has been strange that the western food is better than the Vietnamese food. But after speaking to others in the group, we're not the only ones who are surprised and disappointed by the bland local food. We boarded our cruise boat again and had a nice long sail around a different part of Halong Bay, reaching the mainland at lunchtime. After another huge lunch at the same restaurant as the first day, we said goodbye to Halong Bay and headed back to Hanoi.

It was a long drive and everyone was tired when we reached Hanoi. We checked back into our hotel and got our cheap-ass down jackets. We gave them to Andrew and Marie, one of the couples who was heading to Sapa, in the northwestern mountains of Vietnam, and apparently really cold. We were happy to get rid of them, and also happy they could be of use to someone else. We did warn them about the feathers. We had an awesome meal for dinner of cheeseburgers and huge chips, had the BEST real vanilla bean ice cream we've ever tasted in our lives, went crazy DVD shopping, did some hand washing in our hotel bathroom, and went to bed exhausted but well-fed.

Our trip to Halong Bay could have definitely been longer, and we would have enjoyed a bit more sailing around on the boats, and some kayaking as well. Normally in warmer weather the boat stops a few times for swimming, but it was way too cold (although we did see some crazy Scandinavians jumping into the water from their boat). But we were happy it wasn't hot (I would have had to spend the entire time inside if it had been sunny) and the cool weather meant that there were very few tour boats out on the water. I can imagine the water is clogged with them in the summer. It was great to be out on the water, in the clean fresh ocean air and away from the city for a few days.