Halong Bay (part 4 of 5 -- travels in Vietnam)

After arriving in Hanoi late on Friday night, I was lucky enough to run into an Australian couple who I met in Hoi Ann and who had more thoughtfully already booked a place in Hanoi ..and had a driver waiting at the airport. Per their invitation, I thankfully hitced a ride to the same hotel. Luckily, they had a Sinh Cafe Tourist agency in the lobby and they were able to quickly book me on a 2-day Halong Bay vist leaving at 7:30 am the next morning. A side point -- there are ~100 counterfeit Sinh Cafe organizations in the city, who have tried to build on the success of the original in Saigon. I have no idea if it was the 'real' Sinh cafe, but regardless it turned out well.

I fortunately woke up on time and made the bus for the 3-hour trek out to Halong Bay, which tourist books claim to be the highlight of the Vietnam visit. From a touristy, relaxing, sheer-beauty point of view, they are absolutely right. I had two options for the night accomodation over the trek: stay in a hotel on one of the 3000+ rising islands in the bay area or sleep on the boat. I had slept in plenty of hotels over the recent months, so I figured a boat would be a nice change. The 2-day journey is captured below:

Here is a picture of our boat, which was quite nice. It had a viewng platform on the top, a dining area in the middle, and sleeping accomodations down below.


As we left the bay, we had a clear view of the entire harbor and it was evident that this was the tourist mecca of Vietnam. There must have been over 200 'sleeping' boats in the entire harbor. We mentioned the craziness to one of our guides, and he simply laughed, and mumbled, "this is the low season".


A view of a fishing village on the way to our first destination. You can see the naturally beauty of the island landscape in the background -- there are many of these views to follow. The whole area is incredibly picturesque!


Another view of the trip out -- I have never heard of a boat traffic jam, but I think this scene, especially in the summer months, may evolve the term..

Once again -- there are ~3000+ different islands in the area!

Our first destination was the largest of the many popular limestone caves in the area --it was easily the biggest cave I had ever seen, and spectacular, to say the least. One ensuing conversation I had surrounded the possibility of the cave being a fake -- i.e. not natural. I don't see how anyone could have created this, but then again, I am no spelunking expert.

In my mind, a view of the ceiling is the best indication that there is no way that this could be man-made. The ceiling is an impressive rolling texture created by the ocean, according to our tour guide.

The view from the top of the cave offered our best view yet of the Halong Bay area ...

.. and here I am captured in the classic 'eyes-closed' tourist photo.

After the cave tour, we stopped at a nearby fish farm, where 5 of us on the boat grouped together to purchase ~2 kilos of prawns, which the chefs onboard kindly offered to fry up for us as an appetizer before dinner. The food on the 2-day trip was one of the best parts. I ate very well all throughout Vietnam, due to the cheap prices, but on this 2-day journey, I truly ate like a king!

Our next stop was a local beach island with a great viewing point on top.

After landing, we walked up ~200 steps to take in a truly impressive panorama of the surrounding area of Halong Bay. According to our tour guide, they have no idea how the islands were created. I find this hard to believe, but I have found nothing to the contrary. According to legend, the islands were created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains; as it ran towards the coast, flailing its tail and gouging out valley and crevasses; water soon filled in and the islands were created. Ok -- this sounds reasonable :)

(on a side note, I just finished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything which I would strongly recommend to anyone with an interest in an entertaining and simplistic overview of science, and how we came to being, from the beginning to modern day. Of specific relevance, he continually reiterates how little we know about the earth below our crust, so the idea that they don't know how the islands are created may be truth)

After climbing the island mountain, I, and one of the Korean girls onboard our boat, decided to take advantage of the sea kayaking option. We had a goal of making it out to and around a nearby island, but never came close, partly due to our lack of kayak experience (i.e. she had never been in a kayak, and I by no means am an expert cocks men) and partly due to a very shaky kayak (hey, I'm a golfer -- I'm good at making excuses! :).

You can see the distant island which was our goal. Oddly enough in this photo, we were actually pointed straight, which I can assure you was not the case for 90% of the time. I give full credit to the Korean photographer -- he must have only had a few seconds to get this shot.

By the time we were back close to shore, we had finally gained some type of rhythm, though I wouldn't call it pretty.

..and by the end, we found our kayaking ineptitude quite humorous. Our Vietnamese guide, who was standing right there, found out it quite entertaining as well.

After our beach time, we returned to the boat and enjoyed a fantastic dinner filled with Vietnamese wine, and any kind of seafood that you can think of. Btw -- the 2-day trip only cost $25!

We slept in the boat that night, which was some of the most peaceful sleep I had while in Vietnam, awoke at 7:30 for breakfast, and then journeyed around for a few hours before returning to Halong City to jump on our bus home to Hanoi. During our cruise around the islands, I taught my new Korean friend and a very nice Australian couple a card-game --Hearts The competitive spirit never dies!

As I had read before, the Halong Bay trek was definitely a highlight of the trip.