Ha Long bay
So it was off to the famous Ha Long bay for 3 days from Hanoi. Ha Long is probably Vietnam's biggest tourist destination, and after a scary bus ride where a thousand motorbikers survived our bus driver by the skin of their teeth, this became very obvious when we arrived in the over developed and under loved Ha Long city. In the bay there must have been a thousand large Chinese junk ships waiting for passengers. We got a bad feeling about this.
A large flotila of junks headed out, we aboard a very plush junk which held 14, but with only 6 of us on board. Ha Long is a large bay with thousands and thousands of small limestone peaks jutting out of it. Because of the millions of years of erosion, each peak has practically vertical sides and the shallow water gives the place an eerie calm.
Dinner deluge
After taking a look around Surprising Cave, which was huge and surprising, and after taking a hike up one of the islands to get an incredible grandstand view, we settled in for the evening with about 10 courses of seafood between very few of us. Excellent food. Could never work out why we needed a crew of about 45 to run such a small boat. Especially as they spent most of their time watching Vietnamese Pop Idol.
Second day
If the first day was a little disappointing (although very relaxing and booze filled) due to being beside every other tourist boat in Vietnam, the second day was excellent. We motored on away from the overnight boats and found ourselves all on our own in some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever witnessed.
We hopped in our little kayaks and set off around the curious floating villages. There are people living in these little inlets on tiny floating houses who've probably never set foot on dry land. Still, they've got great locations. The villagers waved as we passed and soon we were out away from anyone else, paddling around giant rock formations and taking in the majesty... 'Triffic.
We were lucky to have two very friendly and fun Aussie couples on board with us, Ian and Kathleen and Nathanial and Perry, who joined us in leaping off the top of our boat into the warm water. Ian and Kathleen, by the way, seemed to have had a very similiar wedding to ours, just on the otherside of the planet. Oh, and they're the first people I've met who I've been married longer than.
So a lovely hour was spent sitting in the sun in spectacular surroundings before we set off in kayaks again. First, into a huge lagoon that is only accessibly by a little cave and then across vast bays before we got to a 300 metre cave.
We came a bit unstuck here. The water level was too low and we were all getting jammed and stuck before Nathanial helpfully pointed out that there were lots of bats just over our heads. Well, suddenly a few of our tour were less excited about the paddling anymore and were quite happy just to get the hell out of that cave, thank you very much.
I've never seen ladies paddle as fast.
Cat Ba
Safely back on the boat, we headed for Cat Ba island, the only inhabited island among thousands. We were placed in a very plush hotel with pool and private beach. I could get used to this. We crashed the hotel managers birthday party, ate cake, listened to terrible karaoke and laughed at a very pudgy Vietnamese 2 year old with sideburns and a mismatched suit. And got comfortably intoxicated. Great day!
So, in the space of 2 short weeks, Lisa has faced all her fears: speeding motorbikes hurtling from every direction; days on the open ocean (she wasn't sea sick once!); bats, rats and dead mice - and come out on top. There's nothing else SE Asia can throw at us that we can't handle! Ha!
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