Halong Bay

Hello All. I have been so busy over the last week or so that I have had no chance to update the blog. In order to catch up with myself I am going to group a few days together into trips. The first trip I took from Hanoi was to Halong Bay, a scenic location with thousands of small islands with more karst limestone peaks dotted about.

Day 1

I was picked up from my hostel early morning in a transit van minibus. The journey was around 3.5 hours and to fill a bit of time the tour guide asked us all to introduce ourselves. This was a nice way to find out who my travelmates were, but it later transpired that we were all on different tours, and different boats etc, so it was a little bit pointless. It is typical of these sorts of tours to drop you at some sort of horrible tourist shop, and sure enough we stopped halfway at an enormous shop/warehouse full of ceramics. I had thought food to be included, but people were being overcharged for eating at the little cafe and I decided to go hungry in protest.

When we made it to the port we were split into our relevent tour groups and I found myself with a group of 6 Americans, made up of two couples and two lads, all traveling together. We looked at the boats docked nearby and thought they looked a bit small and low quality. We were all relieved when the guide informed us that we would take a small shuttle boat to meet our larger, nicer vessel. It turned out that, out of the 500 or so boats, we were staying on one of the 6th largest. It was 3 stories high, with a sundeck on the top. The rooms were also lovely with dark wood panels and the ensuite bathroom actually had a fitted shower, rather than the typical tiny wet room. I am painting a rather rosy picture here and you might think that I would be more than happy, but by buying a more expensive tour I had made the critical error of pricing myself out of the fun loving young person market. All the other passengers were either old couples, or familes. Don't get me wrong, they were all very nice people, but I had hoped to find at least one other person traveling alone. I found myself very much the odd one out :-(

We all jumped onto the shuttle boat and headed off to a cave in the mountains. Happily, it was a very sunny day, so we could really appreciate the scenery. There was a wonderful view from the mouth of the cave and I really hope my pictures do it justice. Following the cave, we visited a floating village where we hired double kayaks for 45 min. I found myself paddling a 60yr old vietnamese lady, who was very good at pointing where she wanted to go, but very bad at helping us get there. The paddles were made from old varnished wood, which was pealing and cracking. I got a blister after 20 min!

As the sun was setting we had a quick swim by a little strip of beach. The water was lovely and warm and I went for a bit of a longer swim out round a buoy. Only when I returned did someone mention that there are nasty jellyfish about, but you are safe (as long as you dont go past the buoy that is!).

When back at Margarite (our boat) the guide informed me that I was the only one who had booked a full day kayaking the following day and another night on the boat. The others were either sleeping on Cat Ba island or going home. I had the choice to join them, but had heard bad things about the island, so stubbonly kept my original itinerary. I had resigned myself to being alone, but hoped that perhaps I would meet some new people on the boat in the evening.

We had a very average seafood dinner and were all encouraged to join in Karaoke in the evening! Me and the Americans declined, and finding the beers expensive at 2 dollars each, were all in bed by 22.30.

Day 2

I had to be up for breakfast on my own at 7.00, but I got up even earlier at 5.30 hoping to see a sunrise....I didnt. We had also been told that we could swim before breakfast and even jump off the top of the boat! The Americans were up at 6.30 in their swimwear and the muscle clad all lads stood nervously on the edge. Spotting an opportunity, I quietly stripped down to my swim shorts, climbed over the railing, and jumped before they had even seen me coming :-)

Once I had changed and eaten I had to pack up to move rooms. They had given me the worst room on the ship, right at the bottom next to the engine. They actually offered to move me, though I would have asked if not. It was a pain to have to pack up though, and they only gave me ten minutes, so I was very hurried and flustered. Then they bundled me onto the shuttle boat, took me to the floating village, and left me....for 1.5 hours! They gave no real explation as to what was happening, other than saying another boat was coming to get me, and the locals didnt speak very much English.

On the postive side, it was quite an interesting place to be left. Little wooden houses standing on rafts of planks were spead about, floating on sponge blocks or empty barrels. I was sat with my back to a square area of sunken nets, each full of fish, or squid, or shrimp, or crabs. In front of me was the largest house with the residents cooking and sitting on the floor to eat. It was one little boy's birthday, and I was amused to hear happy birthday sung in Vietnamese. Later, lots of mums and dads with young children kept appearing in little rowing boats and began to gather at the big house. A big boat came and a few women hoped off wearing white coats and carrying boxes. The next 30 min was a cachophony (dont know how to spell that) of crying kids and laughing parents as each little bottom or arm was jabbed!

Eventually my boat came carrying a couple of leather faced old Aussie ladies. We motored along for a while, kayaked for about 45 min and had lunch on the boat (more dodgy seafood). We chugged along to Monkey island and were dropped off with no instruction as to how long we were to be there or what we were doing. It had a little rocky path up to a good view and a nice long strip of beach. A couple of other boats pulled up and so I went for a swim and chatted to a group of young people for 10 minutes before having to make a speedy exit when my boat came back to pick us up.

We spent the next hour or two purring along between the islands and taking in the views. I was lucky that the weather was good again and really this was the saving grace of the tour. I had been pushed about, given a day that was nowhere near the 'full day kayaking' I ordered, seen but a glimpse of people under the age of 60, and yet the scenery was so good that all was not lost.

When I was dropped back on Margarite I found that I had it all to myself. I must admit, though I have complained constantly about my lack of young exciting company, I enjoyed relaxing on the sundeck, just me and a cold beer. Later, however, I was joined by just 8 other people, and worse than that they were all couples :-( I have never felt more like a third wheel in my life. Thankfully, three of them were young and spoke english, so we had a nice, if subdued evening. Bed at 22.00.

Day 3

Not much to say here. The couples dissappeared on their tours. I was joined my more couples and familes. It started raining. We made our way back to the port, had lunch, and got the bus back. I was lucky enough to meet a friendly Kiwi couple, who I chatted to for the entire way back to Hanoi and even met up with for dinner.

In summary, I was somewhat dissappointed with my Halong Bay experience. The bay was my inspiration for coming to Vietnam and so I was really looking forward to it. Furthermore, after several lonely days in Hanoi, I had hoped to meet some new friends, but found only further depths of loneliness. I didnt even get what I asked for. If the weather had not been good and the scenery fantastic, I would have hated the whole thing.