Halong Bay

We got back to Hanoi yesterday after visiting Halong Bay for 2 nights. Halong Bay itself was very beautiful even though the weather wasn't perfect for it. It was the first time on the trip we've actually done part of an organised tour and we struggled a bit getting told what to do and how long to do it for! Our buddy Stu came with us for the last few days of his trip before flying home to Manchester yesterday :(

On the first day of our Halong Bay trip we got picked up by the cruise company in a mini-bus and taken to our junk boat. We were a bit shocked to find that the 3 of us were the only Westerners on the boat with us; we had a Vietnamese couple who didn't speak English and a father and son from Malaysia who were lovely. We cruised around the islands a bit, before arriving at 'Surprise Cave'. It's called 'Surprise Cave' because of the bits of stalagtite/stalagmite formations that supposedly look like various things like a penguin, a turtle, buddha, a Vietnamese King, Romeo & Juliet, a lion...... to me it just looked like a cave but I could see the resemblence in some of them if I squinted a bit? The biggest surprise of all was the penis shaped formation.. which would look less like a penis and more like someone pointing their finger at something, had it not been suggestively illuminated with pink light. After all the excitement of Surprise Cave we went kayaking around for a while, stopping/beaching ourselves at Bonau cave and having a look around and then continuing to aimlessly paddle around the islands.

The night-time activities on the boat involved the crew singing karaoke (loudly), so the 3 of us decided to opt for a game of cards in our room.

The second day we were taken to Cat Ba island (the biggest in Halong Bay and the 2nd biggest island in Vietnam) for some hiking. I was thanking God I'd decided to wear proper shoes rather than flip-flops after slipping and climbing up very steep and slippery muddy paths and over and around rocks. The hike took us to the top of one of the island's peaks where there was a 30m viewing tower. The tower (which we fondly nicknamed the 'Tower of Tetanus') was completely rusted and despite the sign at the bottom stating 'Max. 5 people', the guy in charge was letting 10 or more people up at a time. After our brush with death, we were surprised to find that we had to slide back down the way we came, past people that were still trying to clamber up. Very safe! :)

We were then taken to Cat Ba town for lunch and a bit of a stroll, and then back to the harbour to be picked up and taken back to our boat. While we were waiting at the harbour I was put to work by one of the local hawker ladies and carried around her snacks for her, hassling my fellow tourists. She was schooling me in what to say and everything.. very entertaining, and a great way to pass time! It was nice to find a hawker with an actual sense of humour! I ended up making 40,000d (about $2) in sales for her ;)

When we got back to the boat we had new company (the others decided to stay on Cat Ba for the night), a group of Thai women. They had had a bit of a bad run so far; they only got to kayak for 30minutes, and were even more pissed off when the boat crew commandeered the only sofa-booth on the boat and refused to let them sit there to play cards, even when asked politely! So we all decided to keep away from the rude boat crew and play cards on our back balcony. Steve got sick twice on the boat from the food, and they tried to make me pay US$3.50 for breaking a glass!! Left a bit of a sour taste in our mouths (literally for Steve.. haha) but we enjoyed Halong Bay itself.

We're leaving Hanoi on a sleeper train tonight for the old capital of Hue. The staff at the hotel here have been so absolutely amazing.. the best service I have ever encountered! They come and sit and talk with us while we wait for our complementary breakfast to be cooked, they let us leave our luggage here while we were in Halong Bay, they booked our train for us and let us check out late at 5pm, and soon they are going to come with us to the train station to show us where we need to be so we don't get confused by all the people grabbing us! I highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Hanoi.. it's called the "Hanoi Boutique Hotel" on Bat Su Street. Amazing.

Amiee x