HA LONG BAY

Saturday, February 20, 2010


HA LONG BAY

VIEW FROM OUR HIKE UP ONE OF THE LIMESTONE ISLANDS

TWINKLING LIGHTS OF THE OTHER ANCHORED JUNKS IN THE BAY AT NIGHT

KAYAKING

ICEBERG DEAD AHEAD!

I'M JUST SO EXCITED!

ME AND MY CRUSTACEAN BUDDY...BEFORE I ATE HIM.

AMAZING VEGETABLE CARVINGS BY THE TALENTED BOYS COOKING LUNCH

KAYAKING THROUGH LIMESTONE CAVES IN HA LONG BAY

I'M KING OF THE WORLD!

OUR JUNK BOAT. THE HA LONG PHOENIX CRUISER

VIEW FROM THE MOUTH OF SUN SOT (SURPRISING GROTTO).

Ha Long Bay is located in the gulf of Tonkin in Northeast Vietnam about a 3.5 hour drive from Hanoi and includes 1969 islands and islets forming this spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. This limestone has undergone 500 million years of formation and the bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The whole place is also full of really cool limestone caves littered with huge stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactite and stalagmite trivia: They grow in limestone caves. Stalactites hang from the ceiling like icicles and stalagmites grow up from the floor; they grow in pairs. The acidic water dissolves some of the limestone as it travels down and grows the stalactite as it evaporates, the remaining water that doesn't evaporates and falls to the floor make the stalagmite. They eventually grow together to make a column.

The best way to visit Ha Long Bay is to spend a few days out in the water on a junk boat: kayaking, hiking, cave exploring and gorging on the freshest of fresh seafood. I was really happy with the boat I chose...the food was beyond amazing. I think I've sampled one of everything that lives in the bay...beautiful multi-course meals of every type of seafood you can imagine! I was in heaven.

Ha Long Bay is just so beautiful and peaceful. As far as the eye can see there are these impressive pillars of limestone poking through the water. It was cold though! It's only about 15C here. We bundled up and and made the best of it though...but everyone was wishing it was bikini weather and we could have been swimming and sunning ourselves on the deck while watching the view pass by. Despite the weather it was just so nice to get out of the noise and chaos of Vietnam's cities and into this stunning Bay. The water in the bay is warm compared to the air you could have comfortably swam in it if you wouldn't have frozen to death in the chilly air when you got out!

On day one we arrived at noon and had a seafood feast before visiting this really huge cave called Sung Sot(surprising grotto)...it was easily the size of several football fields and full of massive stalactites and stalagmites with paths and steps weaving through it carved into the limestone. They did quite a good job of showcasing it with different colored spotlights highlighting the different areas. More fresh seafood cooked up for dinner and I crawled into my warm bed. The rooms had heaters and lots of hot water in the showers so I was really cozy despite the cold...and the view from the cabin window could not be beat!

On Day two everyone who came the boat with us (about 30 altogether)were either heading back to Hanoi or planning on spending the second night on Cat Ba island(largest inhabited island in the area) with the exception of me and this super fun couple from Australia(Gus and Jess)I met at dinner the night before (I saw no point in coming to this beautiful place and sleeping in a hotel on an island). This turned out great as we headed out early with a guide from the boat for some kayaking. It was the perfect time to go as we were the only ones out there as far as we could see. It was so dead quiet and beautiful with only the sounds of birds and the splashing of our ores. We travelled through floating villages and inside many limestone caves. In some areas the echo you could achieve was the most spectacular I have ever experienced. You would yell something and it would echo back at you from 4 or 5 different locations all around you at different intervals...it sounded like someone was back there actually shouting at you, some at 2-3 second delays. After a few hours of kayaking they cooked us up lunch on the boat and we all just crashed and slept for almost 2 hours curled up on the padded benches(I think the cold put our bodies into hibernation!)...we woke up to coffee and they took us(far more awake and perky now) to one of the limestone islands that has a beach and a nice hike up to the top for a great view then we headed back to our junk for dinner.

The first night on the boat was so quiet and everyone finished up with their conversations after dinner and headed off to bed around 10pm....but the second night there were new people on board and two of them turned on the ships karaoke machine at 930pm and proceeded to sing song after song after song of horrible, nails on a chalkboard, make your ears bleed, out of tune, hideously bad karaoke. ON FULL VOLUME! My room was right off the dining room and it was so loud earplugs were useless. I clenched my teeth and tolerated it for an hour and a half hoping they would soon tire of it or realized it was late and inappropriately loud and stop....finally at 10:45pm I snapped. I could not take one more song; I was contemplating jumping out the window and swimming away from the noise. I padded out of my room in my pajamas and asked them to turn the volume down which they agreed to do...then as I turned to go back I just knew that I would still be able to hear it and it would still keep me up...I just couldn't bear the thought so I asked them if they planned on singing for a long time (thinking if I at least knew when the torture would end I could bear it easier with a light at the end of the tunnel) the guy just looks at me and says "Yeah" So I go: "in that case you're gonna have to turn it way down...I mean like really, really quiet because my room's right beside you and I can't sleep" then he says: "this is supposed to be a party ship" (which SO totally not...the party ship is full of 18 years old, it's across the bay and you can spot it by the disco ball on deck and Christmas lights encasing it and silhouettes of people drinking from beer bongs) So he got a lecture from me about how they are not the only people on this ship and they need to respect other people and walked away...it must have worked as they turned it off and left. I'm sure there was a collective sigh of relief from the whole boat of people trying to sleep over the sound of the two worst singers ever. Whoever invented karaoke should be shot. I slept wonderfully after that!

The next morning we headed back to Hanoi and I had 3 hours to kill before going to the train station for my night train to Sapa. I was surprised to see that everything is still closed. It's 5 days into Tet... I couldn't believe it, I thought for sure it would be business as usual by then. I had some supper and the hotel was nice enough to give me a room for the last couple hours to shower and watch a little tv before the train. I'm writing this from Sapa, I'll post a new entry tomorrow from Hanoi about my adventures here!