3 Days in Halong Bay, Vietnam
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2008
1
5
26
Trip End
Nov 21, 2008
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Saturday, August 30, 2008
We just got back from a 3 day, 2 night trip in Halong Bay, Vietnam. I'll write little, the pictures will do more justice, but even then it'll be hard. This is probably the most enchanting place I've ever been to, yet...
Thurs 28/Aug:
We caught a mini-van from Hanoi, Vietnam to Halong Bay, 4 Hours.
We got our rickety old 2 story boat from the port, and started our way toward the torpedo-shaped islands that cover Halong Bay.
It was pretty overwhelming. You see a string of islands, all covered in green, but instead of seeing a chain of just a few, this archipelago stretches across the entire horizon, over 3,000 islands in total (actually we heard 1,969, and then were told over 3,000)
Headed out to sea
. Either way, there are a ton, and it's gorgeous.We cruised our way between some enormous islands, and some smaller ones, some with sheer cliffs of what must be 500 feet, and ended up stopping at one in particular that housed a huge cave. This was a big tourist attraction, there were a ton of other boats there. The cave was pretty impressive, but the coolest part came with the kayaking through the bay that followed.
Lauren and I had our own kayak, and guided it around the bay. You realized how many jellyfish were actually in the water once you saw them up close. Some were huge, maybe 2 feet in diameter, but most were pretty small. We found our way to another cave, this one was half out of water, creating a tunnel through the island. It was about 10 ft out of the water, and 30 ft wide, it led to the inside of that particular island. Crazy kayaking right through, under a HUGE island on top of you. Once you passed through, you were in the middle of a natural stadium, all around you was greenery, birds flying over the trees, and there were just floating in the "lake" that filled the island surrounding you. It was a trip, the only way anyone would enter, or would even want to enter would be through that tunnel, so the island itself was completely untouched, so secluded it was almost eerie
View of Bay from afar
.We made our way back, and hopped back on the boat to set out from the docks and cave. We anchored in the middle of another part of the bay, and jumped off the top of the boat while the guide watched for jellyfish (this was ironic, because once he jumped in, he got stung! Ouch...). The water was so warm, almost too warm, you wanted some more refreshment, but the scenery was a joke, we were anchored in the middle of some section of the bay, and everytime you looked around, you'd just stop what you were doing to try to take it all in.
That night we had some dinner, there were two new-found friends (Firg and Sam from New Zealand), we had a great crew, the cards came out, and we played some drinking games, later I brought the guitar out, and we sat on the deck of the boat. Playing some sing-a-longs, middle of the calm bay, the water was still and the night was as clear as could be, any constellation you knew was easily identifiable if it were in that portion of the sky. We jammed for a while, I even slept up there for a little while, the mosquitos stuck to the islands, so we were free from bugs. After about 4 hours, it started to drizzle a bit, so me and a few others who crashed out made our ways back to the bunks down below. This was the best evening we've had so far..
Singha´s, nice...
.Fri 29/Aug:
We woke up to yet another perfect day for weather. The fog was rolling off into the distance, and we pulled anchor and set out for Cat Ba Island. I swear these things are endless, because around every other curve, it would appear as if there were another row of more untouched islands. It's a total trip.
Cat Ba Island was WAY bigger than it originally led on. It jutted out, and looked like just another small rock, but once you got over the mountain in front, it opened up to an entire city, backed by a ton of jungle. We did a quick jungle hike, and checked into our hotel room. Ocean-vews, hot water, a/c, bathtubs, and a TV. Yeah, you say that in Vegas, and it sound like a no-brainer, but out here this was HEAVEN!!! OK, Vegas has no ocean views... We had a 3-star hotel for the night, ended up doing a quick day trip to Monkey Island. This was super remote, a random island off the nearby bay, super secluded, until the other tour boats came, and we saw a bunch of monkeys. At first they were up in the far trees and someone pointed them out, but eventually they came right up to the sand. The older ones apathetic to the crowds of people, the younger ones were wild, attention-starved, little things
Lauren´s view
. When the food came out, all hell broke loose, and most tourists aside from the hippy, photo-taking type, took off.That night, we had some more beers at the nearby bars, 3 for the price of 2 Happy Hour Specials, and had our laughs about our past trips. The mystique about these islands was palpable, and everyone was in a good mood.
Sat 30/Aug:
We made our way back to the port town at Halong Bay, and took our 4 hour bus-ride back to Hanoi. This randomly decided adventure into Vietnam had proven so far to pay off. Once back in Hanoi, we caught an overnight bus to Hue, Vietnam, and were off into the night. At this pace, we've learned to just take things as they come, and enjoy the moments for what they're worth, because you have the chronic feeling that you'll never experience them again. Oh, just to take note, that 3-Day Cruise. It included a mini-van from Hanoi to Halong Bay, a 2-story boat from there out into the islands of the bay, the caves, kayaking, and boat jumping; sunset jamming and a night's sleep on the boat. Day hike through the jungle of Cat Ba Island, trip to Monkey Island by boat, 3-star hotel stay the 2nd night, and then transportation back to the port and eventually back to Hanoi. This was 126.00 US Dollars for the 2 of us, with all meals included. Not bad. The highlight of Vietnam thus far...
Pic of Ha Long Sunset:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k38/misajon/DSC01353.jpg
Comments
halong bay
do the locals live on the floating markets?
is the water clean?
did yo purchase anything?
what was the cave like?
was your 2 atory boat like the ones in the picture? were you alone on your boat?
I liked the budda :-)
mom