Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

Our three day tour of Ha Long Bay ended up being the best activity, bang for your buck, that we did in the whole of Asia. Feeling slightly guilty about dropping our reservation back in Hanoi, our guesthouse man hooked us up with a wonderful trip for only $45- all inclusive. We were picked up in typical SE Asia touring fashion by a super-crowded mini-bus the next morning which carted us off to Ha Long Bay. Apart from the strange old French man sleeping on Megan's shoulder for most of the ride, it passed without incident.

Here is a little bit of information, courtesy of wikipedia.com on weirdly beautiful Ha Long Bay, Vietnam:

Ha Long Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

Local legend says that long ago when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The people kept their land safe and formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth and decided to live here then. The place where Mother Dragon flew down was named Hạ Long (originally spelled 下龍), the place where the dragon children attended upon their mother was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white- colour of the foam made when Children Dragon wriggle, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail).

Taking a "cruise" of Ha Long Bay is classified by just about every major guidebook as a "must-do" activity while in SE Asia, and practically everyone who visits Vietnam does it. The harbour is literally teeming with wooden triple-decker boats, all variations on the same theme- cabins on the ground level, a spacious, nicely-lit dining room on the second floor, and an open-air deck on top with lounge chairs and potted plants. The great news is that while the boats are pretty big, they only put about 15 people on each, which means lots of personal space- something you don't get very often in crowded Vietnam.

Ha Long bay boats jockeying for position in the harbour

floating houses with Ha Long Bay karst cliffs in the background

more floating homes

Megan with Vietnamese flag

Catt with Vietnamese flag

riding through a small passageway to a sheltered lagoon

in the lagoon

Catt and Megan in the lagoon

Ha Long Bay

this is what our boat looked like...

"chicken" or "kissing" rock formation (depending on which story you go with)

Our own personal ambassador of Halong Bay Fun was a small, overly-enthusiastic, effeminite guy named "Thanh." There is no way to possibly convey the way Thanh pronounces his own name through a weblog entry- just to say that it actually sounds more like "Daan" said in a really quick, shrill, nasal, high-pitched voice. Thanh was giggling all over all of us within minutes- he is the most energetic being I've ever encountered. He was really good-natured about being the source of amusement and butt of all jokes for all of us over the subsequent few days.

Our boat was entirely filled with travellers from Spain. This being the first time we had really encountered Spanish tourists in bulk (apart from Olga and Coral in Borneo,) we were thrilled to be able to practice our Spanish and learn more about a new country... after our tutorial on "The Donor Show" and the crazy lady who got attacked by a gorilla in the Netherlands, we were looking forward to offbeat news en español. There was one larger family group from Barcelona (their accents were almost impossible for us to understand) but we really hit it off with an awesome trio from Madrid and Valencia region- Jose and Valle, and Luis, Valle's younger brother. We pretty much hung out with them for the whole trip spending some fun times playing card games (bullshit and capitalism) over dinners of peanuts, odd looking greens and rice within the wood-panelled dining hall of our boat in the evening, singing karaoke in cat ba island at a bar run by thanh's friend (sweet caroline on a whole new level), avoiding a pack of rabid monkeys on the beaches, and climbing structurally dubious weather towers with broken floor boards on "hikes." Valle and I also did some research on local dance moves at the local disco while Catt used his Spanish to explain just how much he likes to "cantar y bailar." Ask him about it.

Anyway, I am completely ahead of myself. The trip began with some stunning views of the bay, followed by a trip to a cave (another one...) called "Surprise Cave" with an odd looking phallus stalagmite, featured prominently awash in reddish spotlight at the end of the journey through the passageways...surprise! Thanh dissolved into completely incomprehensible giggles when we got there. Later Catt and I relived our honeymoon magic (we had a little bit of a spat as to who should be steering, paddling harder, etc) on an ocean kayak through the funky karst formations on the bay. This time we paddled together in nautical bliss, though. See what longterm travel can do for a relationships? That evening we returned to the boat, took some (scary) dives, flips and jumps off the bow into the murky water, and had a cozy dinner onboard followed up with some card playing. All in all our best day in 'Nam so far.

surprise phallus cave formation... on lefthand side of picture

surprise cave ceiling

Megan jumping off the boat into Ha Long Bay

diningroom on the boat

The next morning we awoke early within our surprisingly plush, private cabin to beautiful views of the bay out the window. We enjoyed breakfast onboard before disembarking at Cat Ba Island, a UNESCO recognized site and Vietnamese National Park. As was the case for us, it is often used as an overnight hotel stop as part of the three-day Ha Long Bay cruises. We were taken to our hotel, a narrowly constructed (only two rooms per floor!), bizarrely decorated, but nice place with no elevator, but plenty of sea-view balconies. Apart from the eight story hike to our room and the gigantic photo of a naked chick on a beach hanging over the tub it was a good place. After going on a hike through the bush (which included some very nice views, minus the sketchy, metal weathertower at the end- see pictures,) we checked in and were taken on another boat, this time to Monkey Island, an island only occupied by primates (no permanent humans,) which is surprisingly NOT recommended in the Lonely Planet due to the resident pack of "extremely territorial, aggressive and vicious monkeys." By this point we had met a Dutch couple who had told us about the horrors of obtaining rabies vaccinations in Vietnam, so as soon as the monkeys started appearing on perches on the hills and clifftops over our little patch of sand in very Hitchcock "The Birds"-type formations, our group of five grabbed our stuff and made for the ocean. Sure enough, tourists in our group started feeding them, and it was only a matter of minutes before one little bastard ran up to an unsuspecting girl and took a bite out of her ankle. Good thing we read our guidebook!

boats sailing on Ha Long Bay in the morning

the top deck of our boat

view from the top of the sketchy tower during our hike

Cat Ba Island tower of terror

stairs to the top of the tower- note the missing steps, rotted out wood, etc

Valle, Jose, Luis, Megan and Catterson at the base of the Tower of Terror, Cat Ba Island

That evening after dinner us plus Valle, Luis and Jose decided to take Thanh up on his offer to take us to a bar and we went to his friend's place for some drinks and karaoke. It was pretty funny, and pretty soon about twenty more people showed up (an audience!) After that we went to a disco for some short-lived dancing and weird music before calling it quits and heading back to the hotel. Some great karaoke pics to be added- we've only got one uploaded right now.

Jose and Valle bringing down the house

The next day we set sail for our bus back to Hanoi, said farewell to Thanh and our new Spanish friends, and set our sights on our next spot... the ancient city of Hue.

Jose, Valle, and Luis, thanks again for your friendship and hospitality during our trip to Halong Bay. It was great seeing you again in Hoi An, too- and hopefully we can meet up in the States or Spain in the future. Until then, happy trails!