Just got back from two nights in Ha Long Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halong_Bay) a few hours ago, and it was amazing--from the scenery to the tour guides to the accomodations and organization of the trip, it was really impressive. It was definitely, without a doubt, the most incredible place in nature (not sure how else to say that) that I've ever been, topping places like Yosemite, Tahoe, and Big Sur. No picture or explanation can do the place justice--you really just have to be there to take it all in and see how awesome this place is. Think Pirates of the Caribbean, in real life, without the pirates.
We left around 830am on Tuesday morning on an decent bus that was unfortunately built for [minature] vietnamese people, which I am not, resulting in my knees in my chest the entire 4hour ride. Luckily, I've grown used to this over the past month [sidenote: at the restaurant we ate at twice here in Hanoi, I cannot stand up straight because the ceilings are about 6 feet--awesome. Maybe someday I'll open a restaurant where those under 5'3 can't reach the table]. I sat in the back row with 3 others--Dan from Toronto, and two girls from England--that ended up being really cool and the people we hung out with the most on the trip. We had a really cool Vietnamese tour guide (we actually had several tour guides, all awesome-- vietnamese guy, guy from Kansas, and a guy from Isreal) who stood up and made a complete fool of himself for 30 minutes talking about how he was single and didn't have a ring and was 26 and had "no money so no honey"...all in his high pitched broken English...quite entertaining. The ride itself was pretty interesting, as most bus rides in this part of the world have been, with cool scenery and weird things to look. What stood out the most were the rice fields which went on forever, and ever, and ever. There may have been as many rice fields as motorbikes, and it finally made sense as to why every single meal contains rice in some form. It was pretty picturesque, really, and was sort of what I would imagine you would see when driving across the Vietnam country side--motor bikes, rice fields with workers wearing the round pointy hats (conical hat, I think it's called), mountains in the distance, and a few small shantytowns in between. We made a pitstop on the way there and the way back at the same place--a giant pottery barn in the middle of nowhere. Really, a pottery barn? Great, I was really thinking that I'd like to purchase a giant vase on my way to a 3 day cruise of Ha Long Bay. Anyways, we made it to Ha Long around lunch time and boarded our boat, the Jolley Roger.
Our boat was nicer than I had expected it'd be, with 17 rooms and 3 decks. The top deck was a chill out area with lawn chairs, the middle deck was the dining/bar area, and the bottom deck had most of the sleeping quarters, which had a private bathroom and were as nice as just about any hostel we've stayed in. We had a great lunch--I think it was something like pork, shrimp, rice, rice, spring rolls, and rice...all the meals on the trip were great and the portions were American size. After lunch, we cruised out into the bay to the spot where we'd swim and kayak to a cave. The bay isn't really even worth trying to explain, since I can't deliver any explanation that would do it justice, but it's basically a giant bay (or rather, a bunch of small bays separated by rock structures) with tons and tons of minature islands made up of huge limestone rock with trees and brush...I'll post some pictures when I have faster internet, but google image it and you'll get an idea. After an hour or so of cruising, we anchored, and jumped off every deck of the boat into the sea for a mid-afternoon, pre-kayak swim. After this, it was time to kayak to a nearby cave. We jumped into double kayaks (emily and I made a pretty solid kayaking team) and kayaked to the cave for what we were told would be 25minutes but was actually closer to 2hours through this amazing, unreal bay of islands. It was really, really exhausting, but incredible. The entire time I was kept saying, is this real life? is this real? It was definitely one of those -wow I can't believe I'm actually in a place like this right now- moments. I couldn't even imagine a place like this existing, much less that I'd be kayaking through it. Unreal. We finally made it to the cave, which was really cool, but pretty much just a cave, after all. The first chamber was about the size of a bedroom, and pretty well lit; the second chamber was tiny and pitch black; the third was about the size of a bedroom with some light peeking through; and the final chamber was the largest--probably about 40 square feet, and was pitch black. There were bats everywhere, along with sharp rocks hanging from the ceiling as you would imagine in an ocean cave...When our Isreali guide was explaining the cave and it's history, he said that there's a mineral in the rock that makes it really sweet, so if you lick it, it'll be sweet..HAH, you had to think that at least one person [girl] would fall for this, and alas, not two minutes after he said this some european girl was licking the rock. Yes, really. We spend about an hour exploring the cave before getting ready to kayak back and try to beat darkness (the sun was setting...).
The kayak ride back to the ship was completely surreal. The sun was setting over all of these rock islands, and it reflected off of the clean, green water. It got even more unreal when the sun set completely and we were still paddling back..through the sea, in the almost pitch black. Apparently, there's some heat activated algae in the water that gives off a florescent light, and holy crap, it was like Avatar. Every time you smacked the water with your hand, you'd create a giant florescent splash. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, but it was unbelievable. We were like little kids giggling and splashing the water every 30seconds to create the light. I thought we'd never make it back because all we wanted to do is play with the algae...it was great. Anyways, we finally made it back to the ship, had another awesome meal, and it was time for the nighttime festivities. There were 30+ backpackers, a pitch black bay, and a bar...you can do the math. It was a great night--I crashed pretty early, but there were a handful of people partying on the roof until the wee hours of the morning. Good night.
The next morning we were awoken by a pounding on the door at 730am (clearly not a luxury cruise) to eat breakfast and check out of our rooms...what a pleasant checkout time. Breakfast was great, though, and after we were off to Cat Ba island (wiki it) where those who were staying 2 nights split from those doing just one...We took a bus across Cat Ba, which was really cool, to another boat that took us to our private island where we'd crash for the night. We got there around lunch time, and wow, it was impressive. White sand beach, huts, volleyball court, ping pong table, unlimited kayaking, and a restaurant/bar area. And we had it all to ourselves (there were 11 of us). We hung out for a while, had lunch, and then had some down time in between lunch and rock climbing, so I opted to go out on a solo kayak ride while the couples napped and the girls tanned. Great decision. I paddled for about 40 minutes to the next main bay over and discovered about 10 floating homes that made up a fishing village of sorts. These people lived on these giant floating platforms with their dogs, kids, etc, and made a living off of fishing. It was so interesting, and despite the vicious barking dogs and dirty looks, I kayaked around the village and checked out each individual home...it was really cool to discover a part of Ha Long bay that wasn't just a tourist center, but a place where Vietnamese people lived and thrived in a lifestyle that presumably they've been living for a very long time.
After my short adventure, it was time for rock climbing on the small island just across the bay from ours. We kayaked over and checked out the different rocks we could climb (there were about 4 to choose from--one easy, two medium, one hard). At first, I was not at all keen on climbing. I don't like heights or wearing nasty sandy shoes, I have a bad ankle, and overall I just didn't think it looked that exciting. Of course, I wasn't about to be the only one of us 11 that decided not to climb for no good reason, so I did it anyways. And I was so glad I did. I opted for one of the two medium climbs (it was grade 5, which I think is pretty basic by rock climbing standards, but pretty tough for a first time ever), and was one of the last ones to go which built up a little anxiety. Of the 5 people that went in front of me, three made it without much trouble, and two got stuck about 2/3rds of the way up and gave up. When I was finally up, I went in with the mindset of "I'm gonna power up this damn rock as fast as possible just to get it over with and say I did it"...and that's pretty much what I did. I had great coaching from a lady at the bottom, and got in a few hard places where I probably would've gotten stuck and started crying had I not been tall enough to reach my way out, but overall I made it to the top in a reasonable amount of time. I was pretty proud of myself...It was a great, great feeling--a good mix of adrenaline rush and sense of accomplishment. Overall, fun experience, and I'd for sure try climbing again.
After climbing, we went on another short kayak trip, and then headed back to the island for a well deserved shower, dinner, and some beers. The night was similar to the previous, except we had a smaller group and were on an island. It was great having a group of just 11 where you could actually get to know everyone and have their names and basic info down by the end of the night. Not too much to say here--we played games (ranging from giant janga to card games to drinking games) all night, explored the beach, and hung out on this amazing island in the middle of ha long bay, vietnam. We crashed around midnight since the power on the island gets turned off shortly thereafter.
The next morning we were again woken up super early for breakfast since we had to board the ship to leave the island around 8am...not too much to talk about here, except for the drunk captain of the ship that came to pick us up that freaking got stuck on the beach. Apparently, when they pulled up (all the way to the beach) at 7am, the tide was much higher than it was when they tried to pull out at 8am...the boat was stuck in the sand for about 30minutes before finally it was pushed out by 6 guys in the pouring rain. Only in Vietnam. We met back up with the Jolley Roger (the boat we had slept on the previous night) for lunch, and then cruised back to Ha Long harbor to catch the bus back to Hanoi....not much to say about the bus ride back except that I landed the front seat with no seats in front of it, and thus had LEGROOM. It made the ride home, and stop number 2 at the pottery barn, 100 times better.
Overall, Ha Long Bay was a perfect trip--definitely a highlight of this trip so far...and of my last 10 years. I'll try to get some pictures up soon of both Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. Tomorrow we're flying down to Ho Chi Min city for our next adventure. Sorry if any of this was choppy, boring, or didn't make sense; I am exhausted. Cheers to aapl rebounding from last week, and to the Lakers losing 2 games in the first round [so far]. Hope all is well.
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