Vietnam: Ha Long Bay

I have a distinct memory of my eldest brother telling me how beautiful Ha Long Bay is. I'm not sure when we had this conversation, certainly many years ago, but it has stuck with me. Once Sam and I put Vietnam into our travel plans, I knew I wouldn't leave the country before visiting Ha Long Bay to see what Dan was talking about. Of course he was right, and the 1,969 islands of limestone karst are a spectacular sight.

Limestone karst islands surround you on all sides.

Being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the bay sees many tourists every year and Hanoi is the main take-off point to get there. Walking around Hanoi, you can't avoid the hundreds of travel agencies that have a range of adverts for trips to Ha Long Bay. Not being huge fans of group travel/organized tours, we investigated getting to Ha Long on our own. The main takeaway from others who attempted this: don't bother - people will try to scam you all the way; the headache and frustration are not worth it. So, we booked a tour to spend two days and one night on a boat. Of course the tour makes a lengthy stop at a souvenir shop to break up the 4-hour drive from Hanoi to Ha Long city and has all manner of other activities that cater to the visiting crowds: walking around a pristine cave and kayaking in a fishing village.

Tourists by the boatload.

Of course, the caves and fishing villages are beautiful and interesting, however, being herded through them with hundreds of other people on a 20-minute timer isn't my idea of fun. But this is all to be expected when you're going to a popular tourist destination on a group tour.

Sung Sot Cave, also known as Surprise Cave.

Floating village.

Luckily for us, we had a great group of people on our boat from Canada, Holland, Finland, France, Russia, Hong Kong. We got to know each other over family-style meals and bonded over the sneaky extra charges along the way. The tickets were for an all-inclusive trip, but drinks didn't make the cut. Everyone was annoyed after the first meal when we were given beverages but not told they were not included. At the end of this meal, the woman came to collect money and the crowd was not pleased. Lesson learned, though. When a woman on a small raft-like boat came around our boat selling snacks and drinks for half the price of the boat, we opted to buy from her. This had to be done very secretively and was one of my favorite memories of the trip. She quietly approached the side of the boat, we waved to her and she began to hover her hand over the selection of goods. When she got to the vodka, we motioned 'yes' and she put the bottle in a plastic bag, hung the handles of the bag on a long stick and raised it up to us. We put the money in the plastic bag and she lowered the stick down and motioned for us to hide the alcohol before the ship crew saw.

Mobile sales woman.

The boat was simple, but in surprisingly good condition. There were about 20 of us on board and we had a lot of fun that evening, playing games and listening to music on the deck. While playing a card game (and imbibing our recently purchased Hanoi vodka mixed into a Sprite can), we had one point where we decided no one could speak English. It was hilarious trying to communicate without our common language, and impressive that everyone spoke more than one language.

Our cabin.

Hi!

We spent the second day slowly cruising through the bay on our way back to shore. The haze of pollution made for a spooky effect when looking into the distance. I'm told that the tourism board is investigating ways to combat the pollution and keep Ha Long beautiful. I hope they're successful, as it really is a gorgeous place. For the moment, it made me think about the fact that it's nearing Halloween, so I started thinking about a plot to a scary movie taking place here. (Don't steal my idea).

Sunrise.

Ha Long Bay through the haze.

We had lunch in Ha Long city with our group before getting on the bus to Hanoi. When we left the restaurant and saw only one bus waiting outside, people started to murmur, "Are we all supposed to get on there?" The tour guides crammed a bunch of us onto the bus and we almost fit, but none of the luggage was on board yet. Timmy, our guide, asked a couple to get off and take another bus. This man was enraged and went off on a rant at Timmy about how he had paid his money for the trip and was upset about all the extra charges and wasn't going to budge.

Right before things got tense on the bus.

Needless to say, this was very awkward. Sam and I exchanged looks and decided that we'd get off the bus considering we didn't have any urgency to get back to Hanoi (i.e. a plane/train/bus to catch that night). We left the bus and wished everyone well. Back inside the restaurant were our Russian and Canadian companions, who also volunteered to wait for the next bus. The Russians apparently negotiated long enough to get us all our own minibus back to Hanoi. This arrived a short time later and we set off with a driver that seemed to think he was playing a video game - driving on the other side of the road, off the road at times, and possibly sleeping according to one of the Russians. Overall, we had a very pleasant weekend and I'm so glad we could see such an amazing place.