Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay is another of our must sees on this trip and due to its close proximity to Hanoi we organised a 3 day sailing trip with our hostel in Hanoi. Just to explain why this was a must see, the Ha Long Bay area is made up of over 2000 islands, essentially the same limestone peaks we saw in southern China except this time in the sea. The scenery of the area will be familiar to you through the HSBC advert with the man in the boat fishing using a cormorant and also very similar to the scenery that you see in “The Man with the Golden Gun” where James Bond goes to Scaramanga’s island.

The 3 hour bus journey to pick up the boat was as usual broken up with a toilet stop, except when I say toilet what I really mean is a huge shop with a single cubical for the 20 coaches that arrive every hour. These stops are always fun as the tour makes a big thing about no shopping but obviously because it is only a toilet stop it is ok to drop us in the middle of this tourist trap (most definitely not shopping?!) This shop (sorry toilet stop) was unique in that it sold fridge freezer sized marble statues! Even after asking how we would get it home in our backpacks they still continued to try and sell us them (I must learn to remember that sarcasm does not translate).

At this particular stop and being rather bored we invented a new game…..who could spot the inappropriate couple first from the other coach parties. These couples are made up of western, middle aged men with a non English speaking Asian partner who the western gentleman had picked up at the airport before starting his two week holiday (similar to picking up a rental car, however no license required and the only insurance needed is medical). They are fairly easy to spot as the girl usually looks completely bored as she has been here a hundred times before and he is following her around like a child follows its mum. Emma won the game as usual by spotting a whole coach load of inappropriate couples - very funny, if not totally sad.

The trip we had organised was a 2 night, 3 day trip which included a night on a Junk sailing the seas between the islands and a night on the biggest island Cat Ba. The tour was supposed to have no more than 16 people on board, which turned out to be more than true because we only had a total of 6 on our boat, 3 couples all English (we were not sure if that was deliberate or not - put all the trouble makers together perhaps?!)

So we left the heavily industrialised Ha Long City and chugged off into the 2000 islands that make up Ha Long Bay. Our first stop was to visit a massive cave that cut its way under and into one of the limestone peaks and then this was followed by sea kayaking around the floating village that is permanently moored up beside this island. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The day ended with the Junk moored up in the middle of the sea, swimming around the boat and then eating a really tasty dinner and a can or two of beer whilst watching an incredible sun set. I can honestly say that it doesn’t get much better than that!

The other couples on the boat were newlyweds Kerri & Grahame from Rugby and Sarah and James from Glasgow. The drinking went on late the first night as we chatted and got to know each other.

Next day we were taken to Cat Ba island, the largest island in the chain and I think the only inhabited one. After a minibus and another smaller boat we arrived in the middle of flat delta which had been flooded to make fish farms, where from here we were guided through the mangroves to the entrance of a small cave. We were in the middle of nowhere with just the 5 of us (us, Sarah & James and the tour guide - we had left Kerri and Grahame on the boat as they were only on a one night trip) and the man sailing the boat. He powered up a diesel generator and took us into the cave. What was presented to us was a untouched cave complex with hundreds of temporary lights powered by the outside generator. No ticket office, no one trying to sell you postcards and no other visitors. As we wondered around I found a entrance to another cave and the guide took me down to explore this more difficult area. Everyone else chickened out (James used the excuse of not being able to climb down because he only had flip flops on…..only joking James) so I was left to wander this new area on my own. The guide took me to the entrance of another cave and peering into the bottomless void you could see the bats flying around only disturbed by the light we were shining down…..very cool.

We were off next to the main town on Cat Ba and a nights stay in a sauna (sorry, I should say hotel but without electricity all night the heat in the room was unbearable) and more beer with the remaining couple Sarah and James - yet another beer fuelled late night. The first drinking establishment we went to was a collection of floating barrels that had been made into a restaurant/home. In the middle of this floating platform was cut a large hole where they fished for the seafood that was put onto the table….at least you cant say it wasn’t fresh. The floating restaurant was connected to the harbour by a 30m long walkway loosely connected by ropes. It made the journey to the establishment look like contestants doing the assault course in it’s a knockout (no jokes about the outfits) and certainly made you work for your beer. We only stayed for a few drinks as nothing on the menu took our fancy and the ear bursting Vietnamese karaoke started to grate a bit after about an hour.

On the final day using a number of boats and buses we were transported back to Hanoi for one more nights stay before catching the night train to Da Nang and Hoi An.

This was a great trip and certainly the best way to see this incredible natural wonder. The only regret we had was that we did not have more time to explore the many islands.

Next Hoi An.

Emma & Bill