The trip to Halong Bay started very early as I got off the night train at 4:30, was dropped off at the travel agency at 5 am, was the only one there in the dark so I kicked the door so the guys who live in it would let me in as it was pouring rain and very very cold - ok, not Calgary cold, but damp, and I am oh so tired cold. I asked the guy if I could have a shower in his little bathroom in the travel agency and he told me it only had cold water so instead I changed out of the clothes I had just slept in and waited for daylight.
The minibus came and we went around Hanoi picking up more and more people. The van was squished full at 16 passengers with at least one pack each. You have to see the size of some people's packs. They are easily as big as I am, width wise and some nearly as tall. Some are quite formidable - especially on some of the smaller women - carrying what looks like another body on their backs, and usually a daypack on the front. Everyone comments on how small my pack is. I am quite proud of myself and especially happy with my choice as I seem to get a lot of rooms on the fourth floor walkups. My right arm has become quite strong. I remember the first few days in Beijing and what a struggle it was to haul my stuff up and down the subway stairs - now - no problem.
As usual, the group started bonding on the bus, and we learned that we were not all staying together for the same time as some were going to Halong for only the day, some for two days and some of us for 3 days and 2 nights. We were collectively bummed that it was pouring rain and freezing as Halong is all about the views.
It took about 4 hours to get to the dock and the group split up and we inherited a few newcomers from other buses to form our boat sleeping group. We saw beautiful junques - carved mahogany masterpieces with beautiful top decks and lovely bonsai trees and fabulous deck furniture. We were excited waiting in the pouring rain with all of our belongings getting soaked. Me? I bought a very ugly poncho in Sapa. It really looks like a cheap shower curtain - clear with blue polka dots so at least I could keep my trusty down jacket and computer and daypack dry. My big pack got pretty wet and muddy.
Through the mist our boat emerged from the bevy of beauties. We got a s*** boat. It was obvious even before boarding. It was very apparent once we boarded and could see into the boat moored next to us. We envied their upholstered seats and white tablecloths. We had benches and wooden tables. And so it went. There is a lot of documented issues regarding the crapshoot of buying a Halong Bay cruise. It does not seem to equate to "you get what you pay for"  You actually just get what you get, no matter what you pay. I think, on my tour, no one paid anywhere near the same price for the same tour - Welcome to Vietnam - again.
I could write a lot about our tour guide - "My name is Ng, you can call me MR. Ng." but I won't.
As always, it is the people you remember and again, I was blessed to have a great group of compadres. Matt and Becky from Brighton England, 5 months into a 10 month tour of the world. Cathy and Gary from Australia who had been living in England for the last 5 years, on their way home to Australia, and into month 7 of a 14 month journey home. They started in Norway and had come through Russia and the Kkasheckstans and China and were trying to go all the way to Australia without one flight.
Anthony, an Aussie who had fought in the Vietnam War and hadn't even told his kids about that. He was reliving some difficult times.  Gerard, a fellow with severe facial deformity from Marseilles France, Ibon, my roommate ( I was too cheap to pay the single supplement), a Spanish guy from the Basque region of France, Williamand Buttercup from Argentina/Brazil and two Germans who spoke no English but were very pleasant.
It was very clear, very early, that is was not only the boat that was substandard: the crew were unbelievable, even to Vietnamese service standards.
It started when Matt asked one of the crew to not smoke inside the cabin. From that the crew decided to pretend we did not exist. Not easy when you have paid for food included, bar service etc. Basically, they served some crap food that I got minor food poisoning from, and they sprawled out on most of the benches (that is where they sleep anyway) turned up the only TV really loud on a stupid Asian soap opera and refused to do anything. We tried to get Mr. Ng to make them do something, anything, give us some cups to drink our homemade hooch from, sell us some pop or beer but they said no and yelled at Mr. Ng and scared him so much he lay down on the bench that was to be his bed anyway and went to sleep.
We drank from three cups we were able to hold on to before the coup and played cards all night and made our own fun. The "staterooms" were from some very poor state that I do not want to visit. There was no hot water for showers because the crew shut the water heater off when they got mad. The room Ibon and I shared was so bad, I woke Mr. Ng up and forced his fearful little body down the stairs to show him that when I brushed my teeth and spat into the sink the spit landed on my foot as the plumbing had rotted out about 100 years before. Also all the water from the cold shower flowed into the bedroom because the floor was tilted away from the drain. Mr. Ng thought this was all OK as it was 'normal',  'same same' all over Vietnam. We became a tight group and eagerly waited the the chance to get off the boat and onto the next day.
Day two was a little brighter - still cool but at least not raining. We got off the boat at Cat Ba Island, after a few more stupid crew tricks, and drove to the National Park. There we started a hike that no one was aware we were going to make and it ended up being a very very steep trek to the top of a mountain that included some rock climbing. Slippery up meant very slippery down. Then we were dropped off in the City to have lunch before heading off to a half day of kayaking. We had anticipated maybe a half hour or 20 minutes of kayaking as we heard the stories of rip-off kayaking - in fact the day before on the boat we moored beside a kayak place where people were doing their 20 minutes of kayaking on the huge "sit on" kayaks - just crap and really not fun in the cold rain.
Our kayaking was great - we kayaked through the huge karsts, by many of the lovely boats, 3 kms to Monkey Island where we got to see some of the monkeys attempt to attack a French woman and force her, fully clothed, to flee into the ocean, onto some rocks where she cut herself when she dove in, monkeys on her heels (until she hit the water). The monkeys there were extremely aggressive and many stupid tourists fed them directly even after being warned that they regularly attack and bite and scratch people once the treats run out. One idiot grandfather even took his little grandson right up to the aggressive troop and forced the fearful kid to feed the monkeys by hand. We were hoping grandpa would get to wear the big nasty mommy monkey on the head because that would have really impressed the kid.
Kayaked back and I think, for the 8 of us who went, it was the highlight of our Halong Bay experience. Halong Bay is now an Unesco World Heritage site, renowned for its natural beauty. There is no question it is beautiful from afar. Close up, not so much. The water is filled with floating, and sinking, litter, thrown in by the hundreds of tourist boats and also the sewage from all of those boats spews right into the water and it is quite obvious that it is an area under pressure and losing at this point. Rumors have it that UNESCO has threatened Vietnam to remove the status if they do not literally clean up their act. I was glad to see it now as I am not hopeful for the near future. Even if there is a garbage can right next to someone, even children, they will still just throw their refuse onto the street or sidewalk without a thought. Then the spitting.....oy vey.....don't even get me started on spitting.........or face plucking.......or men with fingernails longer than Miami Hookers's......... time to move along.
Overall, it was a delightful few days because of the great new friends I made from across the world.

No pics yet as I am having some "ïssues"..... I lent my computer to a guy and it picked up a virus from his memory stick.   I am working on it and not getting too far - I need to find a teenager soon to help me.