2 night trip of Halong Bay

  Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
Sunday, September 10, 2006

2 night trip to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island - to the south of Hanoi. More then 2000 islands, slept on a house boat, kayaking and swimming.

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SUNDAY 10/09/2006
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Halong Bay

Bus picked us up at 8am this morning and drove 3 hours south to Halong Bay. There are 9 of us on this tour - Mel and I, Christina and Kyle (New York, USA), Chloe (Leeds, UK), John and Lisa (UK), Sooh (Korea) and Tanya and Vadim (Russia).

Our guide, Han, took us onto the house boat. We cruised around the gorgeous islands. It was so good to just laze on the sun beds floating amongst the islands. There are about 2000 islands in Ha Long Bay (Ha Long literally means "descending dragon"). We stopped off at huge cave called "The Cave of Surprises". Amazing.



Is this the surprise? Dirty dirty!



And then onto another beach where we climbed 400 steps to see a pagoda on top of a mountain.

There was a mix up with our booking. Mel and I were put onto the cheaper backpacker tour instead of the VIP tour. We paid US$80 and everyone paid US$60 or less. They wanted us to change, but we decided to stay with our tour as the people were friendly. It was funny as Han really talked down the backpacker tour, as he wanted us to spend the extra US$20. The backpacker tour had a "really hard trek", "the people at the hotel are very unfriendly", the boat is not as nice (no air con) and we "eat at a crowded restaurant". The guides thought it was hilarious that we turned down the VIP tour for the crappy backpacker tour. But we did get our US$20 refund...and a souvenir t-shirt!!

After dinner, we lazed again on the sunbeds on the roof of the boat. Anchored in the middle of hundreds of islands and other boats. Our group all shared travel stories and drank red wine. Was really great and inspirational to hear other travel experiences. They have all seen so much more then me. Slept in the cabin - not too bad. Managed to sleep through the night.





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MONDAY 11/09/2006
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Cat Ba Island

Woke up to fantastic warm weather, clear skies and amazing views of the islands (and of course the boat vendors yelling out to us to sell us Oreo cookies and Ritz biscuits).

View from our cabin in the morning.

After breakfast of toast and jam, we all lazed on the sun decks. Cruised to Cat Ba island.

Working on my tan.

Halong Bay on the way to Cat Ba Island

We trekked a mountain for about 2 hours, through some jungle. We ended up in a cave where local Vietnamese were taken during the war. It is nicknamed "The Hospital Cave". It was a massive underground cave.

Trekking through the jungle.

Hospital Cave

IMPRESSION: Our minivan weaving madly around the mountains with tacky pop music or Vietnames music blasting loudly. Tape must've been stuck, as the same songs played over and over again.

The group split up, with Tanya, Vadim, Mel and I checking into The Prince Hotel where we had lunch. Only Tanya can speak a little English, but they were very friendly. Mel and I learnt how to say hello (Priviet) and goodbye (Bakka) in Russian.

After lunch we all went kayaking. Mel and I shared a kayak and after a while we managed to steer the kayak in the right direction. We kayaked between the islands before mooring on a deserted island for a quick swim in the warm waters.

On the way back to the hotel after kayaking.

At night we had dinner on our hotel rooftop. Very romantic views of the waters and with cheesy theme music from the Titanic playing in the background.

Mel, Bev and Han our guide

After dinner Mel and I met up with some of the others for a few drinks at The Green Mango. Drinks and some more chats. Nice and relaxing way to end the tour - the people are really friendly and we all exchanged contacts so will try to catch up on my world travels.

Girls with their cocktails.

Cheers