With the craziness and mayhem of Hanoi seeping from our pores, Kam and I decided to throw away the mopeds and vespas for junks and tourists and do what all travellers seem to do, take on the 2 ‘must-do’ side trips from Hanoi; Halong Bay and Sapa.

You may not have heard of the name of these places, but I am sure you would have seen them both many times in Vietnam travel brochures and TV specials. These 2 places are easily the tourist hot spots of Northern Vietnam.

Ha Long Bay

We awoke early in Hanoi, packed our bags, breakfasted and waited for the treacle-like Vietnamese coffee to kick in. We were told we would need to be in the foyer, ready to be picked up at between 8 and 8:30. Lucky we were, as our guide had German-like precision timing (a very uncommon thing in Vietnam – add at least 30 minutes to every deadline). First on the bus, we hoped that we would be able to stretch out a little for our trip. However, we soon found out that if there is space, then there is money to be made. I am also starting to find out that I may be about a foot too tall for most things in Vietnam, and this bus was no exception.

We headed east to Halong City. I thought there must been have been something wrong with the itinerary as it was only 93kms to our destination, and we were told it would take over 2.5 hours. Another thing to get used in Vietnam, all forms of transport take much longer, with top speeds of 70km/h and bumpy (mostly 40km/h), and clogged, heavily populated roads. It also doesn’t help that the bus has to stop to get a car wash half way through the journey, oh, but no worries as it is conveniently located at a tourist souvenir shop to “satisfy all our shopping needs” – all part of the fun.

As Kam mentioned in her previous post, road rules are very much up for interpretation. The highlight of the drive was when our bus decided to overtake a truck that was already overtaking a bus into oncoming traffic on a 1 lane highway. As we looked forward towards a bus travelling directly towards us, straddling the gutter on the opposite side of the road, I thought that it was lucky that Kam and I had updated our wills prior to this trip, but with all the calm and relaxation of a Buddhist monk, all 3 vehicles slipped into place with millimetres to spare.

Arriving at the Halong Bay dock (with all the thousands of other tourists) we were asked to hand over our passports to our guide. Hesitantly we handed them over, then as if by magic he disappeared into the crowds. After 10 minutes nerves set in; “Are we ever gonna see our passports again?” Sure enough, our guide returned and started herding us all up into different Junks, with different guides and in different areas to begin our journey. For all the mayhem, people running around and being farmed into different areas like cattle, it actually was quite organised, despite looking like an absolute shambles.

We were all nervously waiting to see what our Junk Boat would be like. Despite being shown pictures of our vessel, one doesn’t necessarily believe what one is shown all the time here in Vietnam. And with a name like Poseidon Sails, it didn’t invoke much confidence between us (Was it named after the ancient God or the fateful fictional ship???)! We spotted our Junk in the bay among the many thousands, and Kam and I were quite satisfied, a rustic, wooden boat with lots of character, something that looked like it had come from the set of Pirates of the Caribbean – cool! Next question, would our room be up to the standard of the glossy tourist brochure? Surprisingly it was, Kam and I were very, very impressed. We had decided to stay 2 nights on the boat, and if it had turned out to be a dump, it would have been memorable junk for another reason entirely.

The rest of the day was spent travelling through the bay in between some of the 1,969 kasts (islands) within Halong Bay. We were told that hazy weather was normal, and to us it added a little mystery and intrigue to the whole adventure. It is hard to take a bad photo in Halong Bay as the scenery is truly amazing.

We were given the opportunity to board the unique floating house in a floating fishing village and take a kayak for a paddle for a close up look around some of the kasts. We had heaps of fun, but way too short L  only 40 minutes, which we were told would be an entire day! We also explored a fantastic cave that unfortunately had been completely spoilt due to the influx of tourists. Beautiful, but with all the concrete paths and other additions, they may as well have installed turnstiles, and a travelator – a big difference to the caves we visited in New Zealand.

I enjoyed the group of people I had on my junk (pun intended :p). After a huge meal of fresh seafood and local dishes, we all adjourned to the top deck to relax with some overpriced beers (overpriced still only means $1 a beer) and were treated to a light show from tropical thunderstorm.

The sunrise woke me and I shared a solitary and special moment with our camera ( no pun intended) as I captured the exceptional bay at sunrise.

Cat Ba island is the biggest island on the bay, and the morning was reserved for trekking up a mountain in the national park. Now, this trek starts off normal enough, however after 1 hour of walking through the dense jungle getting nicely hot a sweaty you happen across a few ladders. These ladders are tricky enough linking one rocky out crop to another, however these ladders were also missing a rung or two and the side balustrades in parts due to significant amounts of rust. A few people missed the memo, and found out that thongs just didn’t cut it. Even Kam and I found it hard going in our hiking shoes. The view from the top was worth it (thank God no Mount Imlay here!! –Luke Sharon ;)), and I have been telling Kam that the view from the rusty, rickety 20 meter high viewing platform was also worth it too!

Cat Ba town was nothing to write home about, so I won’t. We just stopped and drank a few beers while we waited for a transfer to our boat, as the rest of our group chose to spend the night on the island – suckers!

Laughing heartily about how awesome we both are to have chosen to spend two nights on the boat, our driver dropped us off at the jetty and told us to our Junk would be five minutes away….15 minutes later we were still all alone on a jetty in the middle of nowhere…… 20 minutes later it started getting dark……30 minutes later we saw threatening flashes of a large storm heading our way…… is this how it all ends??? On a jetty, in the dark, all alone, in the middle of nowhere, on an island in the middle of the ocean??? Ok,ok, so about 30 seconds later the boat came to pick us up, however…. I did start calling Kam ‘Wilson’, just in case we became castaways, Tom Hank style.

All in all, Our Ha Long Bay Junk Boat experience had everything we a good pirate could hope for, pleasure, pain, a little bit of danger and thrills and wonderful experience in an amazing part of the world.