Between the Dragon and the Deep Blue See

  Bai Tu Long Bay, Vietnam
Saturday, November 8, 2008

The rumour amongst the travelling set "Is that Halong Bay, though incredibly beautiful, is overrun with tourists."

15. Halong Bay from the Cave

There are over 1000 different boats frequenting the area, carrying tourists, 600 of which are for day trippers. Every picture perfect postcard - although beautiful - normally contains 5 to 100 boats within its frame. One of the star attractions in the area is the amazing or surprise cave. However one story we overheard was that the cave could barely be seen through the throng of tourists, and looked more like a disco - million flashes going off! Accordingly, we decided to take a more expensive and exclusive route in 'Bai Tu Long' Bay. This bay is just East of Halong Bay and only has 1 tour company that is allowed in the area. The boats are all known as Indochina Junks though we went through Tropical Sails.

Legend has it that the Bay was formed when a mother dragon (Ha Long) and her child (Bai Tu Long) settled to rest. What remains of their slumber is the most magnificent natural wonder. Within the China Sea rise up over a thousand islands, most of which are uninhabited with a few fishing villages clinging to the side of some bays. We both were gobsmacked by the beauty. Interestingly enough, we had seen similar dramatic karsts scenery in Laos. Looking at a map they seem to be at about similar latitude which would make sense.

Our tour started early with us and some fellow passengers collected from our various hotels.

12. The Red Dragon

Four hours and a tourist craft centre later, we arrived at the dock in Halong City to be transferred to our very beautiful junk, called 'The Red Dragon'. It is designed off a pirate vessel that used to keep merchant vessels on their toes in the South China Sea! The nice thing about the boat was that it could take a maximum of 11 people, and had operational sails. Our group was at capacity and included 4 Germans, a Finn, a Swiss, an American, a Spaniard, a Dutchman and us.

Our first day on the boat involved eating a 9 course lunch, visiting a small cave where a fishermen used to live (up until 1994 when the government moved them into villages), kayaking around the karsts, a 10 course supper and then chatting with the other guests and our guide Chen. 

06. Kirsty at Sunrise

Day 2 was started early with dawn pictures of the incredible bay, escaping back to bed and then more gourmet eating. To work it off we went to kayak again,

08. Beach Lunch

exploring the bays at leisure. At times we felt like the only people on the planet. After our strenuous exploration we returned to swim on the beach and an amazing Vietnamese beach braai. After lunch we went for a short swim before a visit to one of the 1994 enforced fishing villages and the school our tour company sponsors. There was also some entertainment watching the local boys rowing with their feet.  

On returning to the boat we barely escaped a huge storm without getting wet.  As the German couple on our boat needed to catch a connection to Cat Ba island the next day, our boat was moved to the outskirts of Halong bay to moor for the night. From feeling completely alone we could see the lights of 6 other boats in the distance! Supper was another grand affair with 10 courses, multiple food sculptures and then a surprise birthday cake for Ronald (from Holland) who was celebrating a significant birthday the next day. To complete the evening we had a 1 song dance to Vietnamese pop and then played poker and Momo (a German version of Uno with very strict rules!).
 
We woke early on our third day to another delicious breakfast. Being in Halong Bay, our guide organised a touristy tour for us. Initially we were meant to visit TiTop Island, but as there was construction there we went to see the amazing cave. As our boat travelled to the cave we passed multiple other boats which made us really

14. In the Amazing Cave

appreciate our sojourn to Bai Tu Long Bay. Surprisingly the 'Amazing Cave' was tourist free giving us an 'Amazing' time there. We later found out that the Vietnamese weather centre had forecast of a huge storm -which luckily never materialised - causing all the boats to sit in the harbour for a while. The cave is absolutely incredible, made up of 3 massive chambers filled with stalactites, stalagmites and pools of fresh water.  We were able to experience it alone right until the end when 1 other tour group arrived.

We completed our amazing 3 day stay with another gourmet lunch aboard the boat as it travelled back to harbour and our minibus awaiting us to take us back to the noise of Hanoi. Getting back to Hanoi was a real assault on the senses. The hooting, number of people/cars/scooters and general ensuing chaos could hardly be more of a contrast to the tranquillity we had just experienced.