Halong Bay

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  Halong Bay, Vietnam
Sunday, June 12, 2005

The three-day trip to Halong Bay was beautiful and, although it was misty for the first two days, the sun came out on the third.

Aaron and I were on one of the hundreds of little boats setting off from Halong City for the bay. Boarding the boat was one of those typical Vietnam tourism moments: we were herded about like cattle, never quite knowing what was going on or where we should be! Once on board, we found ourselves in a group of 16 people, including Nabil, a French guy from Aaron's hotel and some Brum graduates (year below me, Geography, looked kind of familiar!). We ate and slept on the boat and there were quite a few French speakers on board, so my very rusty language skills got a bit of a workout!

On the first day, we motored through the 1000s of little island peaks, stopping to visit a huge cave full of stalagtites and stalagmites, swim and kayak. The water was nice and cool, but incredibly salty! Luckily there were showers on board.

We ate and slept on the boat, bossed about by our guide, Houng ("mean King - you call me King" "come here now" "take photo now" "we eat now - you-you sit here"). Food was included in the price of the trip, with beer and water sold at extortionate rates!

Unfortunately there was too much threat of rain to sleep on deck, but there were two-berth cabins with basic en-suite bathrooms on board ("you share with she - you-you: share"). However, it was the birthday of one of the Brum geographers, so many beers and a couple of dodgy bottles of rice wine were consumed!

Some people were doing shorter trips, so there were only six of us on the second day - Aaron and I; Tanya and Richard (young Aussie couple); and Bruno and Chantelle (older French couple). We took a smaller boat to a national park on one of the islands to climb a peak for fantastic views. Actually, I was the only one who climbed it - the others stayed in the small village where we were to have lunch, playing pool. This turned out to be a good move, despite the fantastic views from the top, the climb was incredibly steep and slippy (very sharp rocks, claggy mud, slippery leaves) and I fell over three times on the way back down - once in the river - and got back wet, muddy and giggling uncontrollably! I didn't feel quite so bad about falling over once my guide had fallen over as well...

Bruno and I kayaked and swam later that afternoon, but the others stayed on board. Richard had a really nasty burn from a motorbike exhaust on his leg, so didn't want to risk making it worse. However, it meant that my stock of supplies from Boots could finally be put to good use.

The second night was spent at a hotel on Cat Ba island, and I shared a room with Aaron so we didn't have to go along with the guide's suggestion of splitting up Tanya and Richard to have boys'/girls' rooms. The guide thought this was hilarious (even though two beds) and spent the rest of the trip winding us up about it.

There was a bit of free time before dinner at the hotel, so Aaron and I wandered down to the main harbour on Cat Ba and sat on plastic stools at the side of the road drinking "bia hoi" (homebrew lager, sold on tap for 1,500 dong - about 5p - per glass).

While drinking our beer, a motorbike driving past gave a slight swerve and dropped one of the huge ice blocks it had been carrying, which unbalanced the bike, causing the rider to fall off. A swarm of people rushed to the scene - to gather up the ice, rather than help the man with his motorbike (luckily he was fine). Obviously a precious commodity out here!
Cathy

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