Leak-proof
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
65
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Before we were allowed into our cabins, we had to go on a sea-kayaking trip to view some caves. It was great rowing in between the huge limestone karsts on the blue water, although it was pretty hard work, keeping the kayaking going in the right direction. We landed outside the front of a cave, and after sending a few people on a mission to rescue a canoe that was floating away because it hadn't been tied up properly, we went on an exploration mission inside the cave. As this one hadn't been adapted for tourists, it involved rather a lot of squeezing through very small gaps, that I wasn't particularly happy about, but I only coped with because the cave wasn't very deep, and we broke out into the sunshine at one point. It turns out there was a lake in the middle of the karst, which was nice to see. We kayaked back, at a slightly slower pace than on the way there, whilst watching the sunset over our waiting boat and the surrounding landscape, very beautiful.
Many of the group decided to go for a swim, jumping off the side of the boat, but just as a few of us were going to jump, a huge jellyfish floated by in our landing zone, so we decided against the idea! A couple of people did get stung over the couple of days, but thankfully, this time I wasn't one of them!
The next day we said goodbye to a few of the group and headed to the Catba island area where the hostel own a private beach. We were told that the water was too choppy to get a boat across that day, so we had to get the bus, but somehow we weren't convinced that the group ever got the boat. It was a short ferry trip from the bus to the private beach, which turned out to be not finished, but still habitable. A group of us claimed one of the few huts (and when I say huts, the sides are all open) which had a finished roof. We were thankful to see we had mosquito nets here! We spent the day relaxing and playing cards etc. Dinner was a fantastic BBQ, and as we were all really hungry by this point, it didn't last very long.
Late into the evening, it started to rain. This wasn't a problem under the shelter of the bar area. We all decided to brave the jellyfish (and rubbish) and go for a swim. In this part of the world there is an algae in the water that is phosphorescent. When you swim in the water, it looks like you are leaving trails of green glitter, it really is amazing. As the rain disturbs the surface of the water, the effect is even better. I've never seen anything like that before, I didn't even know it was possible!
It was getting quite late, and still pouring with rain, and so I decided to get to bed. A little saddened by the fact no blankets or pillows were provided, and yet, we were told we didn't need to bring them, I lay down under my mosquito net. Drip. A huge drop landed on my arm. Drip. And now my face. Drip. You get the picture. The roof was anything but waterproof. Thankfully I had brought my waterproof jacket, and so I huddled under that, whilst trying to keep my bag dry, and grinned and bared the falling droplets on my legs. We all got totally soaked that night, and it wasn't exactly warm enough to be sleeping in shorts and no blanket either. Needless to say, we were all pretty thankful to be getting off the island.
This time, we did get a boat all the way, and it turned out they really weren't lying about how choppy the water was. None of us particularly enjoyed that journey, and were feeling slightly worse for wear when we finally did get onto dry land!
