Halong Bay
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2007
1
14
32
Trip End
Sep 22, 2007
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Friday, June 22, 2007
The first stop was to look at some limestone caves on one of the limestone islands, we then had some lunch then payed a bit extra to go on a smaller boat through some small caves which not everyone did but was a real highlight for me. A few of us on the tour got a good laugh out of our guide actually because he kept repeating himself when we couldn't understand him until he got really angry that no-one could understand him as though it was out fault!
The one inhabited island in the middle of Halong bay is Cat Ba Island which is where I spent the first night with half of the group whilst the rest of the group slept on the boat
Cat Ba Island
. I found a small bar with a view of Halong Bay that was actually owned by a Kiwi. There was a really friendly local girl called An behind the bar who spoke by far the best English of anyone I had met so far (including our tour guide!) and had grown up on the island and was really interesting to talk to. Later that night at dinner at the hotel I met a couple of Israeli guys who I took back to the bar and we played cards with some German girls until they closed which turned out to be a great night. On the second day we went hiking up one of the limestone hills on the island which turned out to be really hard work and quite treacherous which no-one was ready for. A lot of people were wearing thongs and it had rained heavily the previous night. To their credit the Israeli guys helped an older and very unfit English woman the whole way back down the hill. I was personally happy to leave her behind (just joking!)
On the second night I decided to stay on Catba Island again instead of on the boat and I hit the town with a group from the tour. The following morning the tour left to go back to Hanoi which is where I decided to abandon the tour and stay another night on the island. That day I hired a motorbike and went to the beach and had a good look around the rest of the island. That night I was having a meal on the side of the street near were a group of locals were playing pool. I decided to have a game and narrowly beat the guy. By the end of the game about 30 locals had gathered around to watch. This is when the crowd parted and the local pool shark came through and challenged me to a game for money. Having nothing smaller in my pocket I put down 100 000 Dong or about $7AUD. He very narrowly beat me and I foolishly thought, I can take this guy! Anyway 300 000 Dong later I realised that I was being hustled and he was making sure he was only just beating me so I would keep playing. The day after I took a ferry back to Haiphong on the mainland.
