The Dragon Descends Into the Sea

Trip Start Feb 07, 2005

Trip End Aug 24, 2005

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Vietnam Halong City, Vietnam
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

On Tuesday we went off to Halong Bay for a 3 day/2 nights cruise. This was awesome, although we needed our passports to sleep on board so the police know where everyone is, we argued with the guide until he conceded. we met an Australian couple - both about 40 - who's sole journey for their 3 week holiday seemed to be to drink and drink well, and no sooner had we introduced ourselves than Tamara had bought the beers in and rightly so as it was Rob's 22nd birthday! This set the scene for the journey. We sailed to some caves that were nothing else but a tourist stop off point on the way to Cat Ba Island (the only populated island in Halong Bay). Rob and I went kayaking and depsite the beer and the fact that Rob had never done it before we aced it, topping it off with a text book parking manouvre only for this to be ruined by the guy helping us out the boat. As Rob got out, the guy let go leaving me to fall off balance straight into the water!! I was made up to see that the Australian couple had cracked up the Vodka, so after a warm shower, we joined them

Halong Bay Scenery

. We anchored amongst the other boats for the night and the scenery was simply spectacular, albeit slightly cloudy, we wanyed to stay up and watch the Chelsea Barcelona match but the generator had to be switched off so the crew could sleep. The engines kicked into action again about 6am and soon after breakfast, we arrived at Cat Ba Island. We went for a 4km trek in the morning up a mountain, at the top of which stood a very shady tower, we climbed that, overcoming any initial virtigo symptoms to be rewarded with a stunning view over looking the town and hills below. That after we had to ourselves. We found a secluded beach hidden in a cove and played football for a couple of hours sweating out the alchohol from the previous night, followed by our first swim in the Pacific. We returned to Hanoi the following day, the return journey was far less enjoyable than the first.