Boat trip through the islands

We booked a 2 night 3 day tour up to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island for 60 bucks each! Bargain! We met up with our group and borded the minus bus to take us to Halong Bay. No one was talking much until we picked up 2 other girls. Crazy New York girls, one of them lesbian for sure, not sure about the other, but they kept us entertained for the next couple of hours. They told us all about their culinary adventures in Vietnam and oh my god they will try anything and pretty much disgusted all of us!  They specifically requested to have someone drive them to a place that serves dog meat so they could try it!!  Now i had heard that in some areas and Vietnam and South East Asia people eat dog, but I hadn't seen it with my own eyes and hadn't met anyone who'd done it.  Well these girls did, and they said it wasn't good by far, was chewy and  hard to swallow.  They knew it was dog because of the paws in the display case!!  Oh my god!!!  So since this conversation we've been pretty freaked out to eat anywhere! 

halong bay harbor

They ended up getting put with another group so we thought our fun was over, but luckily we got some new people.  We hung out with Paul and Lorna, an Irish couple in their 20's. Paul was a crack up and at one point i asked Lorna if she gets tired of laughing so much!  People are always coming up to you here trying to get you to buy stuff, Paul doesn't get annoyed he just jokes with everyone, whether they get the joke or understand English or not! One guy came up and wanted to polish his shoes, Paul said nothank you but he'll polish HIS shoes. haha Another lady was selling sodas and he made a paper airplane out of one of the flyers we got and flew it at her and it hit her in the head lol . Luckily everyone seems to be able to take a joke!  The other pair we hung out with was Chris and Kim, friends from New Jersey. Chris was an ex-Army guy and he just neeever stopped talking, and I mean never, it's amazing how he didn't have to pause to breath or take a drink or something.  Kim was more quiet and introverted, but maybe because she couldn't get a word in edgewise!

one of the boats like ours

The dock was packed with hundreds of boats, it was diffucult to breath through all of the exhaust fumes!  We had to climb over 3 boats just to get to ours, with all of our bags!! I wasn't happy.  The boats were like cool old pirate ships kind of. Our rooms were small but it was only for 1 night and we at least had our own bathroom. 

We started with lunch on the boat before departure.  Lunch was the introducation for our 3 day food nightmare.  Rice and lots of dishes mostly with seafood, including an entire whole fish, head and tail intact, yummy.  I don't eat seafood and Kates a vegatarian.  After being sick with stomach cramps for 3 days in Laos, I am very cautious about what I eat now. And this was all gross, and it would be all the same gross stuff for the next couple of days.  We lived off the snacks we had bought.  It's all the same snacks everywhere here, there isn't much choice- pringles, ritz, snickers and oreos. That's pretty much it!!

on the deck

After lunch we set sail, and it would have been very very beautiful had it not been so smoggy, i think it was smog, i dont think it was mist.. but there are lots of big green rock island jutting out of the water everywhere, but they look like they are covered in grey smog.

We stopped to walk through a gigantic cave, it was magnificant!  It wasn't discovered intil the 1990's.. so we couldn't figure out how the stories and 'legends' came about that the guide was telling us!  We had the choice to go back to the boat or go through a second cave,  Kate went back to the boat but i went on to the second cave. I don't want to miss anything. It was more walking, but so what, it was worth it, once your inside it feels like your inside the mouth of a giant lion or something. 

bay

Later in the afternoon we went kayaking, it was my first time kayaking and i apparently suck at it because Kate kept getting mad at me.  It was very pretty, the area we paddled around, but the water was a little poluted. 

At night we all hung out and drank on the top deck.. I brought my little speakers and ipod so we had music! I played my Irish tunes and Paul and Lorna got up and sang along to the Irish National Athem lol.  Lorna organized a card drinking game, which i couldn't really follow but just went along when it was my turn and they told me what to do!  We had a late night and even had some guests from the next boat come over.  The next day we went to Cat Ba island and stopped at a national park for trekking.  We couldn't understand most of what our guide said, even though it was apparently in English.  He didn't go into details what this trekking would be like.  I was all up for it though! One of the goals of traveling is for me to try different things that i've never done, and experience new experiences so of course i was going to give it a shot.  I had on my walking shoes.  The trail started off with about a million stairs, Kate stopped halfway up with another couple. We waited and waited for them to catch up but they never came and they guide and to go back and see what happend to them, they had said forget it and turned back.  So we went on our way.  Without a guide we werent sure which way to go. We got to a sign that said one way was the "adventure trail" adventure equals difficult i think so Paul and i voted to go the other way. An old French lady who must have been at least in her 70's, also chose this path but she quickly flew past us!! She was practically jogging!   Paul and I were joking around and thought we might die out there, no one was around!  Thankfully the little old French lady would call out 'helloooo' every once and a while so we knew we weren't deserted.  We finally realized we were going the right way and got closer to the peak.  For about a quarter of the trail it was up and over huge rocky boulders,  and rusty old ladders and handrails! It was a bit scary and we hated it it!!  It was very very difficult and we wanted to die and couldn't understand why people would pay to subject themselves to torture like this on their vacation.  Finally made it to the top and met up with the rest of the group. The view was lovely but i couldn't appriciate it because i was still hating the climb up and was even more worried about the climb down.  I'm terrified of climbing down, it was so steep and you could very easily break your ankle. Kim was equally as scared but Chris was quite the gentleman and went slow with us and help us climb over tough spots.

dock near caves

We drove to our hotel, it was along the beach along an area that looked like it was on its way to being developed for tourism so that was good.  We couldn't wait to get to our beds for a nap after that exhausting day.  As we check in they hand us all our keys... room 501.. 502...  that's the 5th floor, and guess what, NO elevator!! Ahhgggg!!! So up we went, 10 flights of stairs, with the monster packs. Sucked!!   I was in need of some money, so instead of resting i went out in search of an ATM, i walked all over the place for about an hour and a half and asked a few people who said this way and that way, but to no avail. I found a hotel that did credit card advances, but i first had to go back to the hotel to get my passport! Geeeze. Everything is so difficult!  And most people don't speak English, even at the hotels, people speak a little bit but not fluently, so it makes for a challenge. 

cave

We had another gross dinner at the hotel, but no one ate much because i had spotten a pizza place down the road!  We went there for pizza which was gross but better than rice and fish!  The next day we were pack in the bus to go back to Hanoi, stopping for our last icky lunch.  I didn't touch a thing, but poored some M&M's in a bowl and ate them with chopsticks, haha. We were counting down till we got back to Hanoi so we could have a real meal at the Green Mango!  Besides the food we had a great time, the people on tours are what really makes the trip, and we were lucky this time to have a fun group!

bay 2

bay 3

night on the boat

ireland national anthem

begining the monster climb, paul slouching already

bay 4

view from top

dying at the top!!

we made it!

still alive after the torturous climb

from hotel in cat ba

bay 9

bay 7

out of the window

bay 8

on the little boat to monkey island

dont know how we didnt sink

little bastards

monkey island

yep

monkey island

group on little boat

sunset on Cat Ba

cave 2

bay 10

little boat around cave

bay 11

m&m lunch