Halong Bay

Halong Bay is a UNESCO World heritage Site in northern Vietnam about 3 hours outside of Hanoi. Mark and I decided to head out there for a three day two night tour starting on the 8th. It is why I have not put up a new post. We booked the tour through our hostel - Hanoi Backpackers Hostel - and headed out first thing in the morning. The tour cost us $52 and included everything but alcohol and sodas. We were picked up by a tour bus and started by driving all over the old quarter of Vietnam and picking up more people. In all we ended up with 16 total. They were all young and came from 8 different countries. I was the only American. We all got along fabulously. For the most part, despite all having come from different places we bonded extremely fast. There was no weird tension or even the odd man out to make things uncomfortable. Within an hour of two of meeting we were all teasing each other and laughing like old friends.


The first day we got on the boat around 11:30 and headed out into the bay. Halong is all tower karst topography which is upraised limestone. The softer sections have eroded away leaving the tale spires of rock sticking up out of the ocean that are covered in lush green vegetation. There are over 3000 islands in the bay. It is not possible to describe how amazing the bay is that these pictures BARELY do it justice.










The bay is permanently inhabited by fishermen who live on floating docks with small houses and fish raising ponds around them. Some of them also own fishing boats that they use at night.







The first day we went to an enormous cave which had been thoroughly developed for tourism - destroying any interesting archaeology that may have been there at one time - and lit with color lights for added effect. It was amazing nonetheless. It was enormous. It had to have been 200 yards deep, 125 yards wide, and up to 50 yards tall.



After that we went kayaking and swimming at a spot a little ways a way. We got to Kayak through this cave into a lagoon that was entirely surrounded by rock. It was exactly like something out of an old pirate movie. After about 2 hours of playing in the water and jumping off of the top of our boat, which was about 25 above the water in the highest place, we motored to a location where we docked for the night. We got to sleep on the top of the boat and watch the stars.

The next day we headed for Cat Ba island where we were put up in a posh hotel that had a great view of the harbor and outstanding air conditioning - a rare thing in Vietnam. That morning we went into the inland of the island for a bicycle tour though some of the super lush tropical valleys. There were only two small up hill climbs, but there were several excellent downhill descents.



Mark, Sarah, and I turned out to be the fast bikers and managed to beat the chase van to the end of the 10 mile ride. Our guide was very surprised. He said that no one had ever done it before. This did not really come as a shack since I know how people drive in this country. Scary is an understatement.



After the trip we all were getting along so well that most of the people who were on the trip decided to change accommodation to my hostel. I am getting a couple free nights of accommodation for bringing in more business. We are now back in Hanoi and are going to head out into the old quarter of town tomorrow to explore because all of the museums are closed on Mondays.

I will post more soon...