The tour bus arrived in the morning and drove through the busy city and out along the bright green country side of Vietnam. It rained the entire four hour drive to the boat but I didn't mind. The mountainous views along the smooth road was a nice change from chaotic streets of Hanoi.
We pulled up to the dock and the rain didn't let up. The guide motioned for us one by one to grab our bag and wait in the pouring rain on the sidewalk. Once he did a quick head count, he led us to the boat.
"My name is Binh," he announced as he led us through the pouring rain. We will be sleeping first night on boat and second night hotel on the island. For anyone staying the third night you will sleep in bungalow." We passed big triple decker boats that all had the same theme of Luxury, Deluxe or Premium written in big letters along the rusty sides. None of the boats were new but had great character with three levels and green plants decorating along the patios of the second and third levels. Binh came to a stop in front an old rusty transporter boat and threw us each an orange life vest to put on. The boat cruised through the canal of boats until posting next to the "Fantasea Luxury" boat. The men on the boat reached for our hands and pulled us up on to the deck.
Binh guided us into the dining room on the second level and the server passed out glasses of orange Fanta to each of us. "Welcome to the Fantasea!" Binh announced. "There are eight rooms on board of the Fantasea. If you do not have a roommate, one will be assigned to you. We will be cruising around Halong Bay this afternoon and then lunch will be served on this level. After lunch, we will tour the Surprise Cave. After the cave, we will cruise over to do kayaking. We will have dinner back on the boat and following that we will do squid fishing and karaoke."
He walked around and handed us our room keys and informed me I would be bunking with Yajon. Yajon introduced himself and told me he was from Finland as we walked down to the first level to find our room. "If it's easier for you, you can just called me Jon," he said as we climbed down the stairs. We reached a small hallway, passing the cook preparing food in the kitchen and came to a narrow wooden hallway, exposed to the outside of the boat with three doors. He opened the first white wooden door to reveal the two single beds and a huge window overlooking the water just below. The room was decorated very eloquently with red Asian designs covering the comforter and curtains. A narrow door led to the tiny bathroom with the shower head built right into the wall between the sink and toilet. It was a beautiful little bunk and I was excited to sleep onboard tonight.
We dropped our bags and headed back up stairs for lunch. At lunch I met some of the other passengers, Jordan and Tzarch from Israeli and Christina and Miguel from Spain. The servers brought out a tray of assorted beverages and I selected a Vietnamese beer. Platters and platters were served tapas style to each table for us to share. We dug into the rice, pork, shrimp and beef dishes as Binh explained the history of Halong Bay.
"Halong means "Descending Dragon." The legend is when Vietnam had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist the Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands along the bay, linking together to form a wall against the invaders. The invaders ships struck the rocks and the Vietnamese won the battle."
After lunch I walked up to the top deck and admired the sight I was most looking forward to seeing on this trip. Passing beautiful huge stone islands covered with bright green sponge-like moss and jungles. Different shapes and sizes of rock islands scattered and stretched along the bay in every direction. The storm clouds were passing from black to light grey above. Christina walked up to the top deck and frowned, " I hope it's not going to rain all day," She said. I pointed to the blue sky in the far distance, "There are blue clouds way over there, by the time we get out of the cave, the sun will be out." I assured her. I wasn't really sure, but that was just hopeful thinking.
The boat came to a stop at a dock at Bon Han island in the center of Halong Bay. Binh clapped his hands together for us to de-board the boat. We walked down a wooden dock and up a stone steps into the jungle until arriving to the opening of a cave. Water poured down the cracks of the opening as we shimmied through.
"You will see why they simply call it Surprise Cave," he announced as we slid through the narrow opening of the cave and down a rocky slim walkway. The walkway opened to a vast cave expanding so long, I couldn't even see the end. Wooden bridges winded around the big open space with lights illuminating the dark space. Binh pointed to different shapes and animal illusions the eroding rocks displayed along the walk. "This here is a monkey, see it hanging from the top?" He asked the group. We all squinted to see the image in the cave. It reminded me of a magic eye poster, the more you stared at the object, the more clear it became as it popped out of the rock.
We walked along the cave and two other guests on the boat introduced themselves. Zoey and Dominick were from Australia and Scotland. They told me how they met in Rome when backpacking a few years ago. They were dating long distance for about a year until Dominick moved to Melbourne two years ago to live with her. We winded along the long path through the cave and then climbed the stone steps leading us back outside to the sunshine.
The rain had stopped just in time for our late afternoon kayaking. Christina smiled over at me as she pointed to the sky. "You were right!" She gleamed.
We loaded back onto the boat and cruised through the islands until reaching a dock with blue and yellow kayaks. Binh handed us each life jackets and a paddle. Jon and I climbed in a kayak and this now became my favorite part of Vietnam. Paddling through the bay, gliding along the enormous stone islands was breathtaking. I cannot even begin to describe how exotic the bay appeared as we paddled through a cave and into a large body of water completing surrounded by islands. Only kayaks rest in this secret bay and we circled the entire area looking up at the jungles growing over top of the tall stone islands. Monkeys swinging from the branches and plants along the edges. We paddled up to watch the monkeys climbing along the branches and jumping on and off each other.
Before the sunset, we all paddled in and boarded the boat. We grabbed beers and head up to the top deck to admire the sunset. The sky painted hot purple, pink over the lush islands was truly a sight to see. I had never seen anything like it. Giant fireflies buzzed around the boat and the air was warm but still with a light breeze. I was loving tonight and the fact that we had no where else to be but on this boat. I stayed out on the deck until the sky faded to a warm pink then into soft blue and slowly transitioning into the dark black night.
I ran downstairs to shower just before dinner. My roommate was in the shower and Binh told me I could shower in the employee bathroom off the kitchen. It was the only shower on the boat with hot water, so I was thrilled. I quickly rinsed off and changed before joining everyone to eat.
We had a really good group on our cruise. Everyone was very friendly and it was quite the diverse crowd. We had so many different countries represented at one table and I was the only American. Everyone had the same reaction when I answered their question on how long my holiday was. "Only three weeks? Such a short amount of time to travel! However, you are American. Americans don't get proper vacations." Other countries all take one to three month vacations and still don't think that's long enough. I couldn't imagine being off work for three months every year, or traveling for that long on one vacation. They each reviewed their plans on all the other countries they would be visiting before going home and I summed up my just two destinations in one breath.
After dinner we took our drinks up to the top deck and admiring the bright stars illuminating in the sky. The stars created a soft glow, exposing the outline of the tall islands surrounding our boat positioned in the center of bay. Only two other boats hid in this little bay. There were thousands of islands and bays in Halong, so it was easy for boats to find a cozy spot to park and rest for the night.
I proposed a game as we all lay in the lawn chairs in a circle. Being we all were from different countries, I was trying to think of something everyone could relate to. I told them of a game I recently learned where you have to say a fruit or vegetable but without exposing your teeth and couldn't smile. I demonstrated and said, "Banana." Laughing as I said the word, I told them that's exactly what you're not supposed to do. They all laughed and to my surprise agreed to the game. Christina started with "blueberry," while everyone burst into laughter. We went around in a circle, each person revealing their word as we pointed giggling at one another. "Where did you get this game Julie?!" Jon laughed. "Is this an American game?" Everyone laughed on the boat and we continued a few rounds trying to decipher each other's random words.
Binh appeared at the top of the stairs and yelled, "Time for squid fishing!" He led everyone to the back of the boat and handed them fishing rods and turned a spot light into the dark water.
Christina and I gave up pretty quickly as we noticed there was no sign of squid and more importantly, we were now drunk enough to sing karaoke. "You ready to sing?" Binh chirped. We nodded and he led us over to the flat screen TV near the bar.
He demonstrated how to select songs on the remote and Christina and I took over to find a selection we could agree on. It was pretty slim pickings on the karaoke list. The song collection was very dated so we settled on Shania Twain, "You're Still the One." Everyone was so focused on the squid fishing, we weren't embarrassed. Singing karaoke with Christina in the middle of Halong bay- and I couldn't help but wonder how I got here. Before arriving, I was worried I may not find a group like I had when I was in Cambodia.
Christina and I searched through the list again and picked a song by Pink. We instantly failed as the lyrics raced across the screen and we couldn't keep up. I handed the microphone off to the Vietnamese workers on the boat. They absolutely loved karaoke and clearly had a better pitch than us.
Everyone slowly migrated back to their rooms and I climbed back up to the roof and laid in the chair, gazing up at the stars. I couldn't believe I had made it all the way to that picture hung in the nail salon and I was getting to sleep in a boat right the middle of it all. It's funny when you visualize something and then once you arrive to that actual moment. I couldn't be happier with my selection to travel to Vietnam. Halong bay exceeded all my expectations. I knew I would have a great time, but today's agenda blew my mind. Kayaking through a magical bay, hiking through a cave that truly was a surprise and floating in a boat nestled between beautiful mossy islands. It was fun to see my dream trip to Halong bay unravel into my most favorite yet.