Vietnam 2008 (Part II) - Halong Bay
(continued from Part I)
Wednesday - June 18, Halong Bay
Next day, jet lag wakes me up early followed by a cold shower and a miserable shave (someone accidentally turned off our hot water heater and my razor may as well have been a steak knife for how dull it was). At 7:30am we hop on a bus for a 3 hour ride to Halong Bay, we booked a 3 day tour earlier. Absolutely torrential downpours on the way, “good gravy” says my journal. Poor motorcyclists along the way are sopping wet. We get to the bay and take a dinghy out to the boat, rain hits again and everyone else gets soaked – Tom and I are quick with our rain gear and feel a bit smug. We arrive on our main boat, probably 100ft long with a number of small but adequate cabins, and settle in. We tour around the bay, take a short hike through a surprisingly massive cave, and do a little kayaking and swimming from the boat.
Halong Bay is simply stunning, definitely one of the most impressive sights I’ve ever seen. Thousands of tiny limestone islands jut out of the ocean, the whole bay is preserved and empty except for the occasional fishing boat or floating village (a series of rafts lashed together that locals actually live on). We had a great day boating in to the bay and ended it with a delicious dinner and cards with some friendly Germans (they taught me a game called Skat, similar to Euchre, and I whooped them at it. Ha!) To bed late, poor sleep, who cares, we’re anchored in the middle of this ridiculousness.
The next day is one of two clear highlights of the whole trip. In early morn Tom, myself, and a Dutch couple head out on a small boat with our great guide Dat (most people did a one night trip and were heading back to shore), we pick up 3 others for a total of 7 and pick up kayaks from a floating village. Then we take off for the day with our tiny boat motoring along in the vicinity in case of an emergency. We kayak for about 2 hours out into the bay, gorgeous surroundings, weather was perfect with a slight breeze but still sunny (and it was raining yesterday!)
Good workout, we settle in at the backup boat for a little break, a beer, and great swimming. At this point we’re anchored in a cove in the middle of nowhere, one other boat in sight, clear water, islands all around. Then back to the kayaks for another hour plus tour around the area, kayaking through caves that duck under the limestone islands and into secluded, secret lagoons, then back out and around islands and below cliffs. Surreal. Then back to the anchored boat again for more swimming, in the meantime our captain had been grilling a fabulous lunch, all seafood had been pulled live out of nets when we hopped into kayaks. A meal of lobster-shrimp like creatures, octopus/squid/cuttlefish like creatures, french fries, veggies, beef kabobs, shrimp, fish steaks with a curry sauce, and fruit. They cooked better food on a little gas grill on a dinghy than I could make with a full kitchen. Wow.
After lunch was more swimming (teased our way into a 100m deep cave with a very strong current pulling you into the darkness! Scary!) and conversation with our cohorts, great diving off the roof of our dinghy. At this point sun is UP and OUT, it’s hot and I’m burnt. We leisurely motor by the “boat people”, a large floating village that even has a school, then our guide Dat takes us to a tiny cave. We bring flashlights and crawl through, getting filthy but having a blast, I run into a spider web, look up, and see a massive 2” spider sitting just above my head! Ahhh!!! Finally we head back to our big boat (which had gone to shore and picked up a new batch of passengers) where we swam more. I promptly dive off the boat and lose our room key and some cash. Oh well.
Relax for the rest of the day/evening, chat and read, take pics, play a card game with our new Dutch friends (Hearts this time, I win again, Ha!). Best day ever.
(Continued in Part III)