Ha Long Bay

Left Hanoi Thursday morning for Halong Bay, where about 20 of us were crammed into a minibus for the four hour commute. Moving from place to place here is much slower than in the U.S. A ride that should take an hour takes at least thrice as long. Still, the roads here are quite good and Vietnam has much more infrastructure and options for cross country transportation than I expected. I’m relishing in the ease of travel while I can, because I’ve heard it’s not so easy in Cambodia and Laos. One group told me it took them 19 hours to cross from Luang Prabang, Laos to the Vietnam border. Better get my jenga ready with some tunes.

Unfortunately, this is the down season in Halong and most days, the bay is covered in a shroud of mist. Looks like something out of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, which is quite cool to see, but I’ve heard the bay is absolutely breathtaking on a clear day.

Our group for the 3-day boat tour included a German couple, two solo travelers from the UK and South Africa, a group of French university students and two Estonian backpackers. Luckily, all of them were people you wouldn’t mind spending hours stuck in a bus with, because that’s how a good portion of our trip went. Drive to the pier, wait in the bus for the boat to come. Boat back to the pier, wait in a bus to transfer to another bus. Eat breakfast, wait at the hotel for the bus to come. In between, though, we had some great times communicating completely through sign language with some local women selling snacks on Cat Ba Island, helping ourselves to the boat’s booze supply after the captain and crew got completely annihilated and passed out by 10 p.m., and staying up late into the night performing singalongs of our favorite tunes from our native country (I chose Sweet Caroline because the Germans knew it).

Despite the bad service, the trip overall was amazing. We had the opportunity to trek to the top of a mountain, then climb atop a lookout tower where you could see for miles around you; explored a massive cave inside one of the smaller karst formations (there are nearly 2,000 of them forming small islands in the bay); kayaked in the ocean and enjoyed many good meals while floating on the open sea.

I’ve decided to give up vegetarianism for the rest of the trip. It wasn’t too difficult to find veg options in Bangkok, but unless I want to eat nothing but French bread and fried rice, meatless isn’t an option in Vietnam. Bits of pork or water buffalo are included in most dishes, and most of the time the cook doesn’t speak English or understand the concept of vegetarianism. To me, eating the local food is a huge part of traveling that I’m not willing to give up. So I guess I’ll see you in three months, chickpeas. I’ll miss you

Passing the time and a couple of beers with some Cat Ba Island locals.

Beginning the ascent.

View from the top.

Girls selling fruit at one of the bay's floating villages.

Paradise.

A floating village in Halong. These people live their entire lives on the water, only making landfall to sell fish and collect supplies in Halong City.

Inside a cave in Thien Cung Grotto.


Nightfall on the bay.