Vietnam - Halong Bay

This is the last blog. They have now all been tidied up and can be seen with photos included (and most spelling mistakes fixed) at www.outdoor.co.nz

February 18 2009

Halong Bay

We arrived at Halong bay after 16 hours of hard travel from Sapa. First it was the overnight train, which while we had a comfortable sleeper, still saw us ejected into Hanoi at 4:30am. I managed to negotiate an almost fair price for the taxi ride into the centre of town and totally blew the savings by mixing up the 10,000 and 100,000 dong notes. What should have been a $NZ5 taxi ride costing $33 in the end.

From Hanoi it was four hours by several buses and a ferry to Cat Ba Island. The connection between buses in Hai Phoung was by Om Xe (motorbike taxi) and Frances had a terrifying ride with her driver regularly on the wrong side of the road playing chicken with approaching 4WDs. Arriving in Cat Ba town we transferred to more Om Xes and headed over the hill to a back harbour.

As we crested the ridge and entered this bay our tiredness was whipped away by the views that were more spectacular than any photos we had seen. Deposited at the wharf we walked out on a floating causeway to our junk, the "Autumn Perfume" - which looked like a real sailing junk in perfect condition. Setting sail immediately, we spent the next two hours shooting hundreds of pictures and videos as we tried to take in the karst country, floating villages and everyday livelihood on the water. We had been convinced to charter the junk for our exclusive use, so there were just the two of us, our four crew and translator/guide. We had a magnificent cabin and the entire fore deck to ourselves. There was just enough wind to fill the traditional red cotton sails and steady the boat.

Halong Bay is famous for its caves, which are equally famous for their crowds, but we decided that as this was a research trip we needed to visit at least one cave. There must have been 50 boats in the bay and we were shepherded through the caves like sheep and still regarded the experience as well worth while. The caverns are huge, the stalactites and stalagmites magnificent and the lighting subtle. Next time we will plan the visit for early morning to avoid the crowds.

After visiting the caves we motored slowly through the cliff lined channels to a private and sheltered bay where we anchored at dusk. A superb dinner followed soon after. This was muk, or Vietnamese steamboat, which is a bit like a seafood fondue, with fresh clams, squid, fish, lobster and king prawns being constantly added to the pot along with a great range of delicate spices. Definitely a culinary highlight. It was well after dark when we ate dinner and the crew had rigged up lights for a spot of squid fishing. The squid were caught on jigging lines and sometimes by just scooping them with a net and then popped directly into the steamboat.

In the morning we explored the bays by kayak before making our way back to Cat Ba. Next time we will definitely allow at least two nights for the area and visit some of the more outlying islands. Cat Ba is a much better base to explore the area from than Halong City and in our spare hour there we found a great place that hires good kayaks and Hobie cat catamarans.

Hanoi and home

An aging hydrofoil is supposed to make the 45km journey from Cat Ba to Hai Phong City in 45 minutes but it was a bit overloaded and took an hour. Another two and a half hours on the bus gave us time to take in a particularly violent and surreal Jung FY movie and the surrounding paddy field scenery before we arrived back in the bustle of Hanoi. With 45 minutes to shower and complete all our souvenir shopping before our evening appointment it was a bit frantic. However dinner with our travel agent at a restaurant catering mostly to wealthier locals was another taste sensation and well worth the rushing to get there.

Our final image of Vietnam was the hour long taxi ride to the airport. Our driver was watching a video on the centre console as he drove through the morning mayhem they call rush hour. At first it was a cartoon and his eyes stayed mostly focused on the road, but then he swapped the CD for a music video that consisted mostly of a bikini fashion show. His eyes strayed more and more to the video, which was disconcerting as we shared the road with wobbling cyclists, limousines that demanded right-of-way, trucks and millions of motorcycles that weaved in and out of lanes constantly. At least the fare was fixed and pre-paid.

Reflections

We are looking forward to coming back with a bit more time. Highlights this time included:

- Flight of the Gibbons zip lining in Thailand

- The villages in Northern Laos

- Luang Prabang (The clean equivalent of Kathmandu)

- Day trek from Sapa

- Halong Bay and Cat Ba

On the return trip we are looking forward to:

- The Gibbon Experience - 3 days living in the canopy

- Climbing Mt Fansipan in a day

- Boating and trekking the lakes at Ba Be National Park

- Several days exploring Halong Bay by kayak and Hobie cat

- Tam Coc (Halong bay in the paddy fields) and Cuc Phuong National Park